puppy
/ˈpʌpi/noun, verb
puppy is spelled P-U-P-P-Y. The wrong spelling people search most is pupy: about 160 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 175 of all searches for the word. Puppy is a noun meaning “A young dog, especially before sexual maturity (12–18 months)”. The plural of puppy is puppies.
How many letters and syllables are in puppy?
| Letters | 5: P-U-P-P-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 10 times per million words; the 7,121st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, pupy, about 160 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell puppy?
Puppy is spelled P-U-P-P-Y. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 140 of the searches for puppy in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is puppy?
Puppy appears 10 times per million words in written English, the 7,121st 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 puppy?
- US /ˈpʌpi/
- US [ˈpʰɐpi]
Puppy has 2 syllables (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-us-puppy.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of puppy
- puppies plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- puppying participle, present
- puppied participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does puppy mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A young dog, especially before sexual maturity (12–18 months).
- 2
A young rat.
- 3
A young seal.
- 4
A dog with a youthful appearance, or any dog.
- 5
slangA woman’s breast.
Unclasp your bra and set those puppies free.
- 6
informalA (generic) thing; particularly something that is a nuisance; a sucker.
I have another two dozen of these puppies to finish before I can go home.
- 7
datedderogatoryA conceited and impertinent person, especially a young man.
verb
- 1
To bring forth whelps or give birth to pups.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Puppy in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | chiot , raton |
| German | Welpe, Hündchen, Hundewelpe, junger Hund, Hundebaby , Rattenjunges |
| Portuguese | filhote de cão, cachorro, cachorrinho , ratinho |
| Spanish | cachorro, perrito |
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 puppy come from?
From earlier puppie (“a woman's pet dog”), of uncertain origin, but probably from Middle English *puppee, *poupee, from Old French poupée, popée (“a doll; puppet”). More at puppet. Mostly displaced native Middle English whelp (“puppy”), from Old English hwelp, whence Modern English whelp and whelpie.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).