purposes
/ˈpɝpəsɪz/
"purposes" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“purposes” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #2,962 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #2,962
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 3
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - plural of purpose
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | purposes |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈpɝpəsɪz/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #2,962 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “purposes” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for purposes is 8 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈpɝpəsɪz/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,962 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "plural of purpose".
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for purposes, with forms such as "ppurposes", "pruposes", and "puproses". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 3 confusable-pair relationships, "purpose", "purposed", "purposely", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is purposes, spelled P-U-R-P-O-S-E-S.
Definition
- 1plural of purpose
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ppurposes,pruposes,puproses,puropses,purpoess,purposess,purposses,purpposes,purpsoes,purrposes,uprposes
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of purposes - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 “purposes”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-U-R-P-O-S-E-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈpɝpəsɪz/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “purpose” - see the side-by-side comparison. purposes vs purpose
- 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.