prickly pear
/ˌpɹɪkli ˈpɛː/
"prickly-pear" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“prickly pear” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Any of various spiny cacti of the genus Opuntia.
Corpus desk
Index EN-prickly-pear · prickly pear · English
prickly pear · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "P" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | prickly pear |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˌpɹɪkli ˈpɛː/ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “prickly pear” in English
Rare enough to double-check
prickly pear is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˌpɹɪkli ˈpɛː/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for prickly pear, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: From prickly + pear, from the nature of the plant's fruit, which, like the cactus it grows on, has spines on its surface. The correct English form is prickly pear, spelled P-R-I-C-K-L-Y- -P-E-A-R.
Definition
- 1Any of various spiny cacti of the genus Opuntia.
- 2The fruit, often edible, of such a plant.
Etymology
From prickly + pear, from the nature of the plant's fruit, which, like the cactus it grows on, has spines on its surface.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.