popish
/ˈpəʊpɪʃ/
"popish" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“popish” is uncommon English (frequency #87,691 among 4,417 “P” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #87,691
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - of or pertaining to Roman Catholicism
Corpus desk
Index EN-popish · popish · English
popish · rank #87,691 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #87,691
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH poos
Nearest frequency peer: poos (-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 “popish”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- pneumonic
pneumonic
12,314 corpus weight
- Pontypool
Pontypool
12,312 corpus weight
- poos
poos
12,311 corpus weight
- popish
popish
12,310 corpus weight
- popularise
popularise
12,309 corpus weight
- Porcello
Porcello
12,308 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “popish” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | popish |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈpəʊpɪʃ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #87,691 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “popish” in English
Rare enough to double-check
popish is uncommon English at frequency #87,691 among 4,417 “P” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈpəʊpɪʃ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
popish has no tracked misspelling variants, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: From pope + -ish. The correct English form is popish, spelled P-O-P-I-S-H.
Definition
- 1of or pertaining to Roman Catholicism
- 2acting like, or holding beliefs similar to, the pope.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how popish appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
I do, therefore, much blame the petulcity of whatsoever author, that should dare to impute a Popish affection to him […]
Etymology
From pope + -ish.
Synonyms
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
How do you spell "popish"?
What does "popish" mean?
How do you pronounce "popish"?
What is the origin of the word "popish"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "popish", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).