plainclothes
adjective, noun
plainclothes is spelled P-L-A-I-N-C-L-O-T-H-E-S: 12 letters and 2 syllables. It appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 60,074th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, plainclothes means “Of a police officer, wearing ordinary civilian clothes instead of a uniform, in order to avoid detection” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in plainclothes?
| Letters | 12: P-L-A-I-N-C-L-O-T-H-E-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 4 million words; the 60,074th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is plainclothes?
Plainclothes appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 60,074th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce plainclothes?
- US
Plainclothes has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Flame,_not_lame-plainclothes.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of plainclothes
- plain-clothes
- plain clothes
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does plainclothes mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Of a police officer, wearing ordinary civilian clothes instead of a uniform, in order to avoid detection.
noun
- 1
Ordinary civilian clothes, rather than uniform.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Plainclothes in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | en civil, en bourgeois, en habit bourgeois , vêtements de ville |
| Portuguese | à paisana |
| Spanish | de civil, de paisano |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.