English Word Reference Free

president

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

9 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

open dictionary

Access

Free

no sign-up needed

Detailed reference entry for the English word "president", 9-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "president" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "president" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

president is aEnglishnoun. It means: The head of state of a republic. Pronounced /ˈpɹɛz.ɪ.dənt/. It ranks #340 in English word frequency. Often confused with provident and present.

Key facts for president
PropertyValue
Headwordpresident
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈpɹɛz.ɪ.dənt/
Letters9
Frequency rank#340
Misspellings tracked14
Confusable pairs6
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of president in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for president is 9 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈpɹɛz.ɪ.dənt/. Corpus data places it at rank #340 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 14 documented wrong-spelling variants for president, with forms such as "persident", "ppresident", and "preisdent". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 6 confusable-pair relationships, "provident", "present", "preside", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Old French president, from Latin praesidēns (“presiding over; president, leader”) (accusative: praesidentem). The Latin word is the substantivized present active participle of the verb praesideō (“preside over”). The verb is composed from prae (“before… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is president, spelled P-R-E-S-I-D-E-N-T, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    The head of state of a republic.
  2. 2
    In presidential republics, the head of government and head of state.
  3. 3
    Primary leader of a corporation. Not to be confused with CEO, which is a related but separate position that is sometimes held by a different person.
  4. 4
    A person presiding over a meeting; a chair, presiding officer, presider.
  5. 5
    Obsolete form of precedent.

Etymology

From Old French president, from Latin praesidēns (“presiding over; president, leader”) (accusative: praesidentem). The Latin word is the substantivized present active participle of the verb praesideō (“preside over”). The verb is composed from prae (“before”) and sedeō (“sit”). The original meaning of the verb is 'to sit before' in the sense of presiding at a meeting. A secondary meaning of the verb is 'to command, to govern'. So praesidēns means 'the presiding one on a meeting' or 'governor, commander'.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: persident,ppresident,preisdent,presdient,presiddent,presidennt,presidentt,presidetn,presidnet,presiednt,pressident,prresident,prseident,rpesident

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for president

Misspelling Variants of "president"

persident9ppresident10preisdent9presdient9presiddent10presidennt10presidentt10presidetn9
Misspelling Variants of "president"

Frequency rank: #340 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "president"?
"president" is spelled P-R-E-S-I-D-E-N-T. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈpɹɛz.ɪ.dənt/.
What does "president" mean?
As a noun, "president" means: The head of state of a republic.
What words are commonly confused with "president"?
"president" is commonly confused with "provident", "present", "preside". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "president"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "president" is /ˈpɹɛz.ɪ.dənt/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "president"?
From Old French president, from Latin praesidēns (“presiding over; president, leader”) (accusative: praesidentem). The Latin word is the substantivized present active participle of the verb praesideō (“preside over”). The verb is composed from pra... 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.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter P in our English index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.