puce
/pjuːs/
"puce" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“puce” is uncommon English (frequency #98,610 among 4,417 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #98,610
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A brownish-purple color, sometimes more or less deep red or grayish.
Corpus desk
Index EN-puce · puce · English
puce · rank #98,610 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #98,610
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH publishable
Nearest frequency peer: publishable (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Long-tail ranks near “puce”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- prowled
prowled
1,397 corpus weight
- Ptah
Ptah
1,394 corpus weight
- publishable
publishable
1,392 corpus weight
- puce
puce
1,391 corpus weight
- purposive
purposive
1,389 corpus weight
- qasr
qasr
1,386 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “puce” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | puce |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /pjuːs/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #98,610 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “puce” in English
Rare enough to double-check
puce is uncommon English at frequency #98,610 among 4,417 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /pjuːs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A brownish-purple color, sometimes more or less deep red or grayish.".
Zero misspellings are on record for puce in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From French couleur puce, from Latin pūlex (“flea”). The correct English form is puce, spelled P-U-C-E.
Definition
- 1A brownish-purple color, sometimes more or less deep red or grayish.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how puce appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
For blacks, browns, puces, and violets, the acetate or tartrate of iron must be employed.
Etymology
From French couleur puce, from Latin pūlex (“flea”).
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "puce", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).