prophecy
pro·phe·cy/ˈpɹɑfɪsi/noun, verb
prophecy is spelled P-R-O-P-H-E-C-Y, 3 syllables: pro·phe·cy. The wrong spelling people search most is prophacy: about 30 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 115 of all searches for the word. Prophecy is a noun meaning “A prediction, especially one made by a prophet or under divine inspiration”. The plural of prophecy is prophecies.
How many letters and syllables are in prophecy?
| Letters | 8: P-R-O-P-H-E-C-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: pro·phe·cy |
| In writing | 5.1 times per million words; the 11,015th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, prophacy, about 30 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Pairs people search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell prophecy?
Prophecy is spelled P-R-O-P-H-E-C-Y. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 114 of the searches for prophecy in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is prophecy?
Prophecy appears 5.1 times per million words in written English, the 11,015th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce prophecy?
- UK /ˈpɹɒfɪsi/
- US /ˈpɹɑfɪsi/
Prophecy has 3 syllables, split pro·phe·cy in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-prophecy.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with prophecy
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: prophesy.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of prophecy
- prophecies plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- prophecying participle, present
- prophecied participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does prophecy mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A prediction, especially one made by a prophet or under divine inspiration.
French writer Nostradamus made a prophecy in his book.
- 2
The public interpretation of Scripture.
verb
- 1
datedAlternative form of prophesy.
The manipulation of these tremendous beneficent energies helped the world so well that the vast majority of these prophecied catastrophies did not happen.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Prophecy in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense prediction:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | prophétie |
| German | Prophezeiung, Weissagung |
| Portuguese | profecia |
| Spanish | profecía |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does prophecy come from?
From Middle English prophecie, from Old French prophetie, from Latin prophētīa, from Ancient Greek προφητεία (prophēteía, “prophecy”), from προφήτης (prophḗtēs, “speaker of a god”), from πρό (pró, “before”) + φημί (phēmí, “to tell”). Displaced native Old English wītgung. Doublet of prophesy.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).