prisoner
/ˈpɹɪzənə/
"prisoner" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“prisoner” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #5,155 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #5,155
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 4
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A person incarcerated in a prison, while on trial or serving a sentence.
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 | prisoner |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈpɹɪzənə/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #5,155 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 4 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “prisoner” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for prisoner is 8 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈpɹɪzənə/. Corpus data places it at rank #5,155 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 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for prisoner, with forms such as "pirsoner", "pprisoner", and "priosner". 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 4 confusable-pair relationships, "prisons", "prisoners", "prison", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English prisoner, from Old French prisonier (compare Medieval Latin prisōnārius), equivalent to prison + -er. The correct English form is prisoner, spelled P-R-I-S-O-N-E-R.
Definition
- 1A person incarcerated in a prison, while on trial or serving a sentence.
- 2Any person held against their will.
- 3A person who is or feels confined or trapped by a situation or a set of circumstances.
Etymology
From Middle English prisoner, from Old French prisonier (compare Medieval Latin prisōnārius), equivalent to prison + -er.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: pirsoner,pprisoner,priosner,prisnoer,prisoenr,prisonerr,prisonner,prisonre,prissoner,prrisoner,prsioner,rpisoner
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of prisoner - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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
How do you spell "prisoner"?
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Using “prisoner”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-R-I-S-O-N-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈpɹɪzənə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “prisons” - see the side-by-side comparison. prisoner vs prisons
- 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.