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PlainSpell

practise

/ˈpɹæktɪs/verb

practise is spelled P-R-A-C-T-I-S-E: 8 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 3.3 times per million words in written English, the 14,509th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “practice vs practise” about 1,000 times a month (Google, United States). As a verb, practise means “To repeat (an activity) as a way of improving one's skill in that activity” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in practise?

Letters8: P-R-A-C-T-I-S-E
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing3.3 times per million words; the 14,509th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
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 common is practise?

Practise appears 3.3 times per million words in written English, the 14,509th 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 practise?

  • /ˈpɹæktɪs/

Practise 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-practise.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with practise

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: practice, practised.

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

Forms of practise

  • practises present, singular, he/she/it
  • practising participle, present
  • practised participle, past
  • practice

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

What does practise mean?

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

verb

  1. 1

    To repeat (an activity) as a way of improving one's skill in that activity.

    You should practise playing piano every day.

  2. 2

    To repeat an activity in this way.

    If you want to speak French well, you need to practise.

  3. 3

    To perform or observe in an habitual fashion.

    They gather to practise religion every Saturday.

  4. 4

    To pursue (a career, especially law, fine art or medicine).

    She practised law for forty years before retiring.

  5. 5

    obsoleteTo conspire.

  6. 6

    To put into practice; to carry out; to act upon; to commit; to execute; to do.

  7. 7

    To make use of; to employ.

  8. 8

    To teach or accustom by practice; to train.

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

Practise in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchs'entrainer, pratiquer (to repeat an activity as a way of improving…), exercer (to pursue (a career, especially law, fine art…)
Germanüben (to repeat an activity as a way of improving…), ausüben, praktizieren (to perform or execute a craft or skill)
Portuguesepraticar, treinar (to repeat an activity as a way of improving…)
Spanishpracticar (to repeat an activity as a way of improving…)

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 practise come from?

From Middle English practizen, a variant of practisen, from Middle French pratiser, practiser, from Medieval Latin practizo, from Late Latin practico (“to do, perform, execute, propose, practise, exercise, be conversant with, contrive, conspire, etc.”), from prāctica (“practical affairs", "business”), from Ancient Greek πρᾱκτική (prāktikḗ), from πρᾱκτικός (prāktikós, “practical”), from πρᾱ́σσειν (prā́ssein, “to do”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *per(h₂)- (“to go over, cross”).

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

What to look up after practise