preside
/pɹɪˈzaɪd/
"preside" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“preside” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #29,424 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #29,424
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 10
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To act as president or chairperson.
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 | preside |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /pɹɪˈzaɪd/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #29,424 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 10 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “preside” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for preside is 7 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /pɹɪˈzaɪd/. Corpus data places it at rank #29,424 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for preside, with forms such as "perside", "ppreside", and "preisde". 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 10 confusable-pair relationships, "pride", "provide", "presume", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Old French presider, from Latin praesidēre (“preside”), from pre- (“before”) + sedere (“to sit”). Displaced Old English foresittan, which might have been a calque of the Latin. The correct English form is preside, spelled P-R-E-S-I-D-E.
Definition
- 1To act as president or chairperson.
- 2To exercise authority or control.
- 3To be a featured solo performer.
Etymology
From Old French presider, from Latin praesidēre (“preside”), from pre- (“before”) + sedere (“to sit”). Displaced Old English foresittan, which might have been a calque of the Latin.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: perside,ppreside,preisde,presdie,presidde,presied,presside,prreside,prseide,rpeside
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of preside - 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 “preside”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-R-E-S-I-D-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /pɹɪˈzaɪd/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “pride” - see the side-by-side comparison. preside vs pride
- 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.