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PlainSpell

practice

/ˈpɹæktɪs/noun, verb

practice is spelled P-R-A-C-T-I-C-E. The wrong spelling people search most is pratice: about 230 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 39 of all searches for the word. Practice is a noun meaning “Repetition of an activity to improve a skill”. The plural of practice is practices.

How many letters and syllables are in practice?

Letters8: P-R-A-C-T-I-C-E
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing115 times per million words; the 932nd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, pratice, about 230 Bing searches a month (all of them)
Pairs people search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How do you spell practice?

Practice is spelled P-R-A-C-T-I-C-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 39 of the searches for practice in either form.

practicethe right spelling8,790 searches a month
praticea missing c230 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is practice?

Practice appears 115 times per million words in written English, the 932nd most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce practice?

  • /ˈpɹæktɪs/

Practice has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-practice.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-practice.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with practice

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

practice vs practise1,000 G

Also written: practise.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of practice

  • practices plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • practicing participle, present
  • practiced participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does practice mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    Repetition of an activity to improve a skill.

    Near-synonyms: (sometimes synonymous) training, rehearsing, rehearsal, dry run, trial, workout

  2. 2

    An organized event for the purpose of performing such repetition.

    Being on a team is hard: you're always having to go to practice while everyone else is taking it easy.

  3. 3

    The state of being proficient due to repetition of a skill.

    I was rusty, but after a few months, I got back into practice.

  4. 4

    The ongoing pursuit of a craft or profession, particularly in medicine or the fine arts.

  5. 5

    Skilful or artful management; dexterity in contrivance or the use of means; stratagem; artifice.

  6. 6

    An easy and concise method of applying the rules of arithmetic to questions which occur in trade and business.

  7. 7

    The observance of religious duties that an spiritual institution requires of its members.

  8. 8

    The form, manner, and order of conducting and carrying on suits and prosecutions through their various stages, according to the principles of law and the rules laid down by the courts.

    This firm of solicitors is involved in family law practice.

verb

  1. 1

    USAlternative spelling of practise.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Practice in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchpratique (repetition of an activity to improve skill)
GermanÜbung, Üben, Training (repetition of an activity to improve skill), Ausübung, Ausüben, Praktizieren (ongoing pursuit of a craft or profession)
Portugueseprática (repetition of an activity to improve skill), praxe, costume (customary action, habit, or behaviour)
Spanishpráctica (repetition of an activity to improve skill), costumbre (customary action, habit, or behaviour)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does practice come from?

The noun is from Middle English practice, practique, practyse, from the verb; also compare Medieval Latin prāctica.. Displaced native Old English sidu. The verb is from Middle English practice, practise, practize, practyse, from Middle French pratiser, practiser, alteration of practiquer, from Medieval Latin prācticāre, from Late Latin prācticus, from Ancient Greek πρακτικός (praktikós).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after practice