postpone
/poʊstˈpoʊn/
"postpone" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“postpone” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #15,480 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #15,480
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To delay or put off an event, appointment, etc.
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 | postpone |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /poʊstˈpoʊn/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #15,480 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “postpone” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for postpone is 8 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /poʊstˈpoʊn/. Corpus data places it at rank #15,480 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for postpone, with forms such as "opstpone", "posptone", and "posstpone". 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 1 confusable-pair relationship, "postcode", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin postpōnō (“I put after; I postpone”) from post (“after”) + pōnō (“I put; I place”), compare forestall. The correct English form is postpone, spelled P-O-S-T-P-O-N-E.
Definition
- 1To delay or put off an event, appointment, etc.
- 2To place after in order; to deem less important.
Etymology
From Latin postpōnō (“I put after; I postpone”) from post (“after”) + pōnō (“I put; I place”), compare forestall.
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: opstpone,posptone,posstpone,postopne,postpnoe,postpoen,postponne,postppone,posttpone,potspone,ppostpone,psotpone
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of postpone - 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
How do you spell "postpone"?
What does "postpone" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "postpone"?
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Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “postpone”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-O-S-T-P-O-N-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /poʊstˈpoʊn/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “postcode” - see the side-by-side comparison. postpone vs postcode
- 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.