praise the Lord

intj

"praise-the-lord" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“praise the Lord” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an interjection. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
15
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A phrase used to thank God by Christians.

Corpus desk

Index EN-praise-the-lord · praise the Lord · English

praise the Lord · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 15 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "P" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

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.

Key facts for praise the Lord
PropertyValue
Headwordpraise the Lord
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechInterjection
Letters15
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “praise the Lord” in English

praise the Lordfalls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

praise the Lord is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aninterjection. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for praise the Lord, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

Etymologically, the entry records: A present subjunctive clause inherited intact from a time when English was freely productive of them. It is semantically equivalent to praise be to God. The zero morph difference from the imperative form allows parsing as a command synchronically. The correct English form is praise the Lord, spelled P-R-A-I-S-E- -T-H-E- -L-O-R-D.

Definition

  1. 1
    A phrase used to thank God by Christians.
  2. 2
    Expression of thankful happiness; not always literally religious when used by cultural Christians, but not explicitly differentiable, thus ambiguous.
  3. 3
    Stereotypical exclamation used in mockery of Christianity.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how praise the Lord appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. “There was a time when the homosexual demanded marriage,” he added with an exasperated chuckle. “Praise the Lord, that time is past. PRAISE THE LORD!” he commanded.

Etymology

A present subjunctive clause inherited intact from a time when English was freely productive of them. It is semantically equivalent to praise be to God. The zero morph difference from the imperative form allows parsing as a command synchronically.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "praise the Lord"?
"praise the Lord" is spelled P-R-A-I-S-E- -T-H-E- -L-O-R-D.
What does "praise the Lord" mean?
As an interjection, "praise the Lord" means: A phrase used to thank God by Christians.
What is the origin of the word "praise the Lord"?
A present subjunctive clause inherited intact from a time when English was freely productive of them. It is semantically equivalent to praise be to God. The zero morph difference from the imperative form allows parsing as a command synchronically. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list