prison
/ˈpɹɪzn̩/
"prison" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“prison” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #1,670 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #1,670
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 12
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A place or institution where people are held against their will, in the US especially for long-term confinement, as of those convicted of serious crimes or otherwise considered undesirable by the g...
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 | prison |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈpɹɪzn̩/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #1,670 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 12 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “prison” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for prison is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈpɹɪzn̩/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,670 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 3 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 prison, with forms such as "pirson", "pprison", and "priosn". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 12 confusable-pair relationships, "proton", "prisons", "prisoner", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English prisoun, prison, from Old English prisūn, a borrowing from Old French prison, from Latin prehensiōnem, accusative singular of prehensiō, from the verb prehendō. Doublet of prehension. The correct English form is prison, spelled P-R-I-S-O-N.
Definition
- 1A place or institution where people are held against their will, in the US especially for long-term confinement, as of those convicted of serious crimes or otherwise considered undesirable by the government.
- 2Confinement in prison.
- 3Any restrictive environment, such as a harsh academy or home.
Etymology
From Middle English prisoun, prison, from Old English prisūn, a borrowing from Old French prison, from Latin prehensiōnem, accusative singular of prehensiō, from the verb prehendō. Doublet of prehension.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: pirson,pprison,priosn,prisno,prisonn,prisson,prrison,prsion,rpison
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of prison - 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 “prison”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-R-I-S-O-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈpɹɪzn̩/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “proton” - see the side-by-side comparison. prison vs proton
- 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.