pleb
/plɛb/
"pleb" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“pleb” is an uncommon English word, ranked #65,408 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #65,408
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A commoner; a member of the lower class of a society.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | pleb |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /plɛb/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #65,408 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “pleb” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for pleb is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /plɛb/. Corpus data places it at rank #65,408 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
pleb doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: A clipping of plebeian and plebe, sometimes also understood as a back-formation from plebs. The correct English form is pleb, spelled P-L-E-B.
Definition
- 1A commoner; a member of the lower class of a society.
- 2A common person; an unsophisticated or cultureless person.
- 3A freshman cadet at a military academy.
Etymology
A clipping of plebeian and plebe, sometimes also understood as a back-formation from plebs.
This word in other languages
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 “pleb”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-L-E-B - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /plɛb/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.