prelate
/ˈpɹɛlət/
"prelate" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“prelate” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #44,416 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #44,416
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 11
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A clergyman of high rank and authority, having jurisdiction over an area or a group of people; normally a bishop.
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 | prelate |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈpɹɛlət/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #44,416 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 11 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “prelate” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for prelate is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈpɹɛlət/. Corpus data places it at rank #44,416 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A clergyman of high rank and authority, having jurisdiction over an area or a group of people; normally a bishop.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for prelate, with forms such as "perlate", "pprelate", and "prealte". 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 11 confusable-pair relationships, "private", "prepare", "prelude", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Old French prelat (French prélat), from Medieval Latin praelātus, perfect passive participle of praeferō (“to carry before, prefer, exceed”), see -ate (noun-forming suffix). Doublet of prefer. See also infer, relate and refer, delate and defer, as well… The correct English form is prelate, spelled P-R-E-L-A-T-E.
Definition
- 1A clergyman of high rank and authority, having jurisdiction over an area or a group of people; normally a bishop.
Etymology
From Old French prelat (French prélat), from Medieval Latin praelātus, perfect passive participle of praeferō (“to carry before, prefer, exceed”), see -ate (noun-forming suffix). Doublet of prefer. See also infer, relate and refer, delate and defer, as well as collate and confer among others.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: perlate,pprelate,prealte,prelaet,prelatte,prellate,preltae,prleate,prrelate,rpelate
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of prelate - 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
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Using “prelate”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-R-E-L-A-T-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈpɹɛlət/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “private” - see the side-by-side comparison. prelate vs private
- 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.