puerile
/ˈpjʊə.ɹaɪl/
"puerile" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“puerile” is uncommon English (frequency #61,736 among 4,417 “P” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #61,736
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Childish; trifling; silly.
Corpus desk
Index EN-puerile · puerile · English
puerile · rank #61,736 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #61,736
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH Puyallup
Nearest frequency peer: Puyallup (+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 “puerile”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- PSR
PSR
38,268 corpus weight
- psychical
psychical
38,267 corpus weight
- puerile
puerile
38,265 corpus weight
- Puyallup
Puyallup
38,264 corpus weight
- pyrotechnic
pyrotechnic
38,263 corpus weight
- quadriceps
quadriceps
38,261 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “puerile” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | puerile |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈpjʊə.ɹaɪl/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #61,736 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “puerile” in English
Rare enough to double-check
puerile is uncommon English at frequency #61,736 among 4,417 “P” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈpjʊə.ɹaɪl/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for puerile, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin puerīlis (“childish”), from puer (“child, boy”). The correct English form is puerile, spelled P-U-E-R-I-L-E.
Definition
- 1Childish; trifling; silly.
- 2Characteristic of, or pertaining to, a boy or boys; compare puellile.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how puerile appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
1850, Thomas De Quincey, French and English Manners (originally published in Hogg's Instructor The French have been notorious through generations for their puerile affectation of Roman forms, models, and historic precedents.
From the table he had received the gout; from the alcove a tendency to convulsions; from the grandeeship a pride so vast and puerile that he seldom heard anything that was said to him and talked to the ceiling in a perpetual monologue; from the exile, oceans of boredom, a boredom so persuasive that it was like pain,—he woke up with it and spent the day wi…
Etymology
From Latin puerīlis (“childish”), from puer (“child, boy”).
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 "puerile", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).