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PlainSpell

prune

/pɹun/noun, verb

prune is spelled P-R-U-N-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 30,418th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, prune means “The dried, wrinkled fruit of certain species of plum” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of prune is prunes.

How many letters and syllables are in prune?

Letters5: P-R-U-N-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writingabout once in every 1 million words; the 30,418th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
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 prune?

Prune appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 30,418th 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 prune?

  • UK /pɹuːn/
  • US /pɹun/
  • Australia /pɹʉːn/

Prune 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: En-au-prune.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with prune?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as prune from its last stressed vowel (/un/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: unrep.

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 prune

  • prunes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • pruning participle, present
  • pruned participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does prune mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    obsoleteA plum.

  2. 2

    The dried, wrinkled fruit of certain species of plum.

  3. 3

    Something wrinkly like a prune.

  4. 4

    slangAn old woman, especially a wrinkly one.

verb

  1. 1

    informalTo become wrinkled like a dried plum, as the fingers and toes do when kept submerged in water.

  2. 2

    To remove excess material from a tree or shrub; to trim, especially to make more healthy or productive.

    A good grape grower will prune the vines once a year.

  3. 3

    To cut down or shorten (by the removal of unnecessary material).

    to prune a budget, or an essay

  4. 4

    To remove (something unnecessary) for the sake of cutting down or shortening that which it was previously part of.

  5. 5

    To remove participation status from or contributed material attributed to users usually deemed inactive or undesirable from an interactive computer service or website for the sake of housekeeping.

  6. 6

    To remove unnecessary branches from a tree data structure.

  7. 7

    obsoleteTo trim the feathers with the beak.

  8. 8

    obsoleteTo preen; to prepare; to dress.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Prune in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchpruneau (dried plum), élaguer, émonder, tailler (trim a tree or shrub)
GermanBackpflaume, Trockenpflaume, Dörrpflaume (dried plum), zurecht-, zurück-), be-, zurück-) (trim a tree or shrub), kürzen ((figuratively) cut down or shorten)
Portugueseameixa seca (dried plum), podar (trim a tree or shrub), maracujá de gaveta (old woman)
Spanishciruela pasa, pruna seca, guindón (dried plum), podar (trim a tree or shrub)

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 prune come from?

From Middle English prune, from Old French prune, from Vulgar Latin *prūna, feminine singular formed from the neutral plural of Latin prūnum, from Ancient Greek προῦνον (proûnon), variant of προῦμνον (proûmnon, “plum”), a loanword from a language of Asia Minor. Doublet of plum.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after prune