plume
/ˈpluːm/
"plume" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“plume” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #22,773 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #22,773
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A feather of a bird, especially a large or showy one used as a decoration.
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 | plume |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈpluːm/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #22,773 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “plume” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for plume is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈpluːm/. Corpus data places it at rank #22,773 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 13 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for plume, with forms such as "lpume", "pllume", and "plmue". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "plus", "pure", "pump", 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 Late Middle English plum, plume (“feather; plumage”), from Anglo-Norman plum, plume f and Middle French, Old French plume f, plome (“plumage; down used for stuffing pillows, etc.; pen, quill”) (modern French plume f (“feather; pen, quill; pen nib; (fig… The correct English form is plume, spelled P-L-U-M-E.
Definition
- 1A feather of a bird, especially a large or showy one used as a decoration.
- 2A cluster of feathers worn as an ornament, especially on a helmet; a hackle.
- 3A token of honour or prowess; that on which one prides oneself; a prize or reward.
- 4The vane (“flattened, web-like part”) of a feather, especially when on a quill pen or the fletching of an arrow.
- 5Ellipsis of plume moth (“a small, slender moth of the family Pterophoridae”).
- 6Things resembling a feather.
- 7Things resembling a feather.
- 8Things resembling a feather.
- 9Things resembling a feather.
- 10Things resembling a feather.
- 11Things resembling a feather.
- 12Things resembling a feather.
- 13Things resembling a feather.
Etymology
From Late Middle English plum, plume (“feather; plumage”), from Anglo-Norman plum, plume f and Middle French, Old French plume f, plome (“plumage; down used for stuffing pillows, etc.; pen, quill”) (modern French plume f (“feather; pen, quill; pen nib; (figurative) writer”)), and directly from its etymon Latin plūma f (“feather; plumage; down”) (compare Late Latin plūma f (“pen, quill”)), from Proto-Italic *plouksmā, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *plewk- (“to fly; to flow; to run; to flap with hands; to splash”). The English word is a doublet of pluma.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: lpume,pllume,plmue,pluem,plumme,pplume,pulme
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of plume - 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 “plume”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-L-U-M-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈpluːm/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “plus” - see the side-by-side comparison. plume vs plus
- 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.