plod
/plɒd/
"plod" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“plod” is uncommon English (frequency #69,339 among 4,417 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #69,339
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A slow or labored walk or other motion or activity.
Corpus desk
Index EN-plod · plod · English
plod · rank #69,339 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #69,339
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH PII
Nearest frequency peer: PII (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Long-tail ranks near “plod”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- photovoltai…
photovoltaics
30,665 corpus weight
- PII
PII
30,663 corpus weight
- plod
plod
30,662 corpus weight
- plucks
plucks
30,661 corpus weight
- Pocatello
Pocatello
30,660 corpus weight
- podiatrist
podiatrist
30,659 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “plod” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | plod |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /plɒd/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #69,339 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “plod” in English
Rare enough to double-check
plod is uncommon English at frequency #69,339 among 4,417 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /plɒd/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A slow or labored walk or other motion or activity.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for plod, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English *plodden (found only in derivative plodder), probably originally a splash through water and mud, from plodde, pludde (“a puddle”) (whence modern plud). Compare Scots plod, plodge, plodder, dialectal Dutch plodden, plodderen, dialectal Ge… The correct English form is plod, spelled P-L-O-D.
Definition
- 1A slow or labored walk or other motion or activity.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how plod appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
We started at a brisk walk and ended at a plod.
Germany can’t afford to stick to the stately plod into decline that Merkel initiated any longer. Merz will have to act fast, and break things to pull the country out of the quagmire it finds itself in.
Etymology
From Middle English *plodden (found only in derivative plodder), probably originally a splash through water and mud, from plodde, pludde (“a puddle”) (whence modern plud). Compare Scots plod, plodge, plodder, dialectal Dutch plodden, plodderen, dialectal German ploddern, Danish pladder (“mire”).
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "plod", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).