please
/pliːz/
"please" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“please” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #208 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #208
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 19
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To make happy or satisfy; to give pleasure to.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | please |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /pliːz/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #208 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 19 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “please” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for please is 6 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /pliːz/. Corpus data places it at rank #208 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for please, with forms such as "lpease", "pelase", and "plaese". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 19 confusable-pair relationships, "plebs", "pledge", "pleased", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English plesen, plaisen, borrowed from Old French plaise, conjugated form of plaisir or plaire, from Latin placeō (“to please, to seem good”), from the Proto-Indo-European *pleHk- (“pleasingness, permission”). In this sense, displaced native Old… The correct English form is please, spelled P-L-E-A-S-E.
Definition
- 1To make happy or satisfy; to give pleasure to.
- 2To desire; to will; to be pleased by.
Etymology
From Middle English plesen, plaisen, borrowed from Old French plaise, conjugated form of plaisir or plaire, from Latin placeō (“to please, to seem good”), from the Proto-Indo-European *pleHk- (“pleasingness, permission”). In this sense, displaced native Old English līcian, whence Modern English like.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: lpease,pelase,plaese,pleaes,pleasse,plesae,pllease,pplease
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of please - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “please”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-L-E-A-S-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /pliːz/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “plebs” - see the side-by-side comparison. please vs plebs
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.