premise
/ˈpɹɛm.ɪs/
"premise" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“premise” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #9,384 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #9,384
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 9
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A proposition antecedently supposed or proved; something previously stated or assumed as the basis of further argument; a condition; a supposition.
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 | premise |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈpɹɛm.ɪs/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #9,384 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 9 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “premise” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for premise is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈpɹɛm.ɪs/. Corpus data places it at rank #9,384 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for premise, with forms such as "permise", "ppremise", and "preimse". 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 9 confusable-pair relationships, "promise", "premium", "preside", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English premise, premisse, from Old French premisse, from Medieval Latin premissa (“set before”) (premissa propositio (“the proposition set before”)), feminine past participle of Latin praemittere (“to send or put before”), from prae- (“before”)… The correct English form is premise, spelled P-R-E-M-I-S-E.
Definition
- 1A proposition antecedently supposed or proved; something previously stated or assumed as the basis of further argument; a condition; a supposition.
- 2Any of the first propositions of a syllogism, from which the conclusion is deduced.
- 3Matters previously stated or set forth; especially, that part in the beginning of a deed, the office of which is to express the grantor and grantee, and the land or thing granted or conveyed, and all that precedes the habendum; the thing demised or granted.
- 4A piece of real estate; a building and its adjuncts.
- 5The fundamental concept that drives the plot of a film or other story.
Etymology
From Middle English premise, premisse, from Old French premisse, from Medieval Latin premissa (“set before”) (premissa propositio (“the proposition set before”)), feminine past participle of Latin praemittere (“to send or put before”), from prae- (“before”) + mittere (“to send”). Sense 4, a piece of real estate arose from the misinterpretation of the word by property owners while reading title deeds where the word was used with the legal sense.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: permise,ppremise,preimse,premies,premmise,premsie,prmeise,prremise,rpemise
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of premise - 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 “premise”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-R-E-M-I-S-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈpɹɛm.ɪs/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “promise” - see the side-by-side comparison. premise vs promise
- 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.