prelim
/ˈpriːlɪm/
"prelim" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“prelim” is uncommon English (frequency #53,180 among 4,417 “P” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #53,180
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Preliminary.
Corpus desk
Index EN-prelim · prelim · English
prelim · rank #53,180 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #53,180
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH preform
Nearest frequency peer: preform (-1 rank slots)
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.
Long-tail ranks near “prelim”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- poutine
poutine
46,825 corpus weight
- Praeger
Praeger
46,824 corpus weight
- preform
preform
46,822 corpus weight
- prelim
prelim
46,821 corpus weight
- prenup
prenup
46,819 corpus weight
- preys
preys
46,818 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “prelim” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | prelim |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈpriːlɪm/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #53,180 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “prelim” in English
Rare enough to double-check
prelim is uncommon English at frequency #53,180 among 4,417 “P” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈpriːlɪm/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Preliminary.".
Zero misspellings are on record for prelim in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Clipping of preliminary. Sense 2 ("clipping of preliminary examination") was originally Oxford University slang, now in common use. The correct English form is prelim, spelled P-R-E-L-I-M.
Definition
- 1Preliminary.
Etymology
Clipping of preliminary. Sense 2 ("clipping of preliminary examination") was originally Oxford University slang, now in common use.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "prelim", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).