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PlainSpell

purpose

/ˈpɝ.pəs/noun, verb

purpose is spelled P-U-R-P-O-S-E. The wrong spelling people search most is pupose: about 30 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 185 of all searches for the word. Purpose is a noun meaning “The end for which something is done, is made or exists”. The plural of purpose is purposes.

How many letters and syllables are in purpose?

Letters7: P-U-R-P-O-S-E
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing76 times per million words; the 1,394th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, pupose, about 30 Bing searches a month (all of them)
Rhymes with

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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How do you spell purpose?

Purpose is spelled P-U-R-P-O-S-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 186 of the searches for purpose in either form.

purposethe right spelling5,550 searches a month
puposea missing r30 searches a month

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 purpose?

Purpose appears 76 times per million words in written English, the 1,394th 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 purpose?

  • UK /ˈpɜː.pəs/
  • US /ˈpɝ.pəs/
  • Australia /ˈpɜː.pəs/

Purpose 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-purpose.wav, En-us-purpose.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with purpose?

One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as purpose from its last stressed vowel (/ɜɹpəs/):

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 purpose

  • purposes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • purposing participle, present
  • purposed participle, past

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

What does purpose mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    The end for which something is done, is made or exists.

    What is the purpose of your visit?

  2. 2

    Function, role.

    The exceptionally small gate-leg table served the purpose of a tea table admirably.

  3. 3

    meaning for existing or doing something.

  4. 4

    Resolution; determination.

  5. 5

    obsoleteThe subject of discourse; the point at issue.

verb

  1. 1

    To have or set as one's purpose or aim; resolve to accomplish; intend; plan.

  2. 2

    To have (an) intention, purpose, or design; to intend; to mean.

  3. 3

    obsoleteTo discourse.

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

Purpose in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchbut, objectif (end for which something is done, is made or…), intention (intention), détermination (determination), sujet, propos (subject of discourse)
GermanZweck, Ziel (end for which something is done, is made or…), Intention, Absicht (intention), Thema (subject of discourse), Grund (reason for doing something)
Portuguesepropósito (end for which something is done, is made or…), intenção, objetivo (intention), propor-se (have set as one's purpose; intend)
Spanishpropósito (end for which something is done, is made or…), intención, objetivo (intention), decisión, determinación (determination), proponerse (have set as one's purpose; intend)

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 purpose come from?

From Middle English purpos, from Old French purposer (“to propose”) (with conjugation altered based on poser), from Latin prō- (“forth”) + pōnere (“place, put”), hence Latin prōpōnō, prōpōnere. By surface analysis, pur- + pose (“halt, pause, put, place”).

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

What to look up after purpose