prone
/pɹəʊn/
"prone" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“prone” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #7,961 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #7,961
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Lying face-down.
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 | prone |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /pɹəʊn/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #7,961 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “prone” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for prone is 5 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /pɹəʊn/. Corpus data places it at rank #7,961 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for prone, with forms such as "porne", "pprone", and "prnoe". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "pros", "prop", "Pune", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English prone, proone, proon, from Latin prōnus (“turned forward, bent or inclined”), from prō (“forward”). The correct English form is prone, spelled P-R-O-N-E.
Definition
- 1Lying face-down.
- 2Of the hand, forearm or foot: turned facing away from the body; with the thumb inward or big toe downward.
- 3Having a downward inclination or slope.
- 4Shooting from a position while lying down.
- 5Predisposed, liable, inclined.
Etymology
From Middle English prone, proone, proon, from Latin prōnus (“turned forward, bent or inclined”), from prō (“forward”).
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: porne,pprone,prnoe,proen,pronne,prrone,rpone
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of prone - 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 “prone”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-R-O-N-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /pɹəʊn/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “pros” - see the side-by-side comparison. prone vs pros
- 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.