prude
/pɹuːd/noun, adjective
prude is spelled P-R-U-D-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 48,230th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, prude means “A person who is or tries to be excessively proper, especially one who is easily offended by matters of a sexual nature” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of prude is prudes.
How many letters and syllables are in prude?
| Letters | 5: P-R-U-D-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 3 million words; the 48,230th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is prude?
Prude appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 48,230th 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 prude?
- /pɹuːd/
Prude has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-prude.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with prude?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as prude.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: duper, perdu, drupe.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of prude
- prudes plural
- more prude comparative
- most prude superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does prude mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A person who is or tries to be excessively proper, especially one who is easily offended by matters of a sexual nature.
He became shy. "I hadn't meant to tell you. It's not quite for a lady." For, like most men who are rather animal, he was intellectually a prude.
adjective
- 1
Prudish.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Prude in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense A person who is or tries to be excessively proper:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | bégueule, prude, sainte-nitouche |
| German | prüde Person, Prüder, Prüde |
| Portuguese | puritano, puritana, pudico |
| Spanish | mojigato, mojigata, gazmoño, gazmoñero, santurrón, pacato |
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 prude come from?
From French prude, from Old French prude, prode, feminine of prou, prod, prud (“good, excellent, brave”), from Latin prōde. Related to proud but unrelated to prudent.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).