prurient
/ˈpɹʊəɹ.i.ənt/
"prurient" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“prurient” is an uncommon English word, ranked #78,049 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #78,049
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Uneasy with desire; itching; especially, having a lascivious anxiety or propensity; lustful.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | prurient |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈpɹʊəɹ.i.ənt/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #78,049 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “prurient” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for prurient is 8 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈpɹʊəɹ.i.ənt/. Corpus data places it at rank #78,049 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
prurient doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Learned borrowing from Latin prūriēns, present participle of prūriō (“itch”). The correct English form is prurient, spelled P-R-U-R-I-E-N-T.
Definition
- 1Uneasy with desire; itching; especially, having a lascivious anxiety or propensity; lustful.
- 2Arousing or appealing to sexual desire.
- 3Curious, especially inappropriately so.
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin prūriēns, present participle of prūriō (“itch”).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
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 “prurient”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-R-U-R-I-E-N-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈpɹʊəɹ.i.ənt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.