purse
/pɜːs/
"purse" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“purse” has 7 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #7,727. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #7,727
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A small bag for carrying money.
Corpus desk
Index EN-purse · purse · English
purse · rank #7,727 · 7 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #7,727
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 7 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH punish
Nearest frequency peer: punish (-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.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “purse”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- plasma
plasma
92,277 corpus weight
- plea
plea
92,276 corpus weight
- punish
punish
92,275 corpus weight
- purse
purse
92,274 corpus weight
- quarterback
quarterback
92,273 corpus weight
- Reagan
Reagan
92,272 corpus weight
What this shows “purse” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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 | purse |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /pɜːs/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #7,727 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “purse”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 7 spelling variants around purse (IPA /pɜːs/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #7,727 among 4,417 “P” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for purse, with forms such as "ppurse", "pruse", and "pures". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "pus", "push", "puts", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English purs, from Old English purs (“purse”), partly from pusa (“wallet, bag, scrip”) and partly from burse (“pouch, bag”). Old English pusa comes from Proto-West Germanic *pusō, from Proto-Germanic *pusô (“bag, sack, scrip”), and is cognate wi… The correct English form is purse, spelled P-U-R-S-E.
Definition
- 1A small bag for carrying money.
- 2A handbag (small bag usually used by women for carrying various small personal items)
- 3A quantity of money given for a particular purpose.
- 4A specific sum of money in certain countries: formerly 500 piastres in Turkey or 50 tomans in Persia.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how purse appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
And then muſt many a man occupie as farre as his purſe would reache, and ſtretche out his legges accordynge to the length of his couerlet.
Master leathercrafter does handcrafted wallets, belts, purses, handbags etc., supporting self and helpers. Good enough to carve fantst art and portraits into leather.
Etymology
From Middle English purs, from Old English purs (“purse”), partly from pusa (“wallet, bag, scrip”) and partly from burse (“pouch, bag”). Old English pusa comes from Proto-West Germanic *pusō, from Proto-Germanic *pusô (“bag, sack, scrip”), and is cognate with Old High German pfoso (“pouch, purse”), Low German pūse (“purse, bag”), Old Norse posi (“purse, bag”), Danish pose (“purse, bag”), Dutch beurs (“purse, bag”). Old English burse comes from Medieval Latin bursa (“leather bag”) (compare English bursar), from Ancient Greek βύρσα (búrsa, “hide, wine-skin”). Compare also Old French borse (French bourse), Old Saxon bursa (“bag”), Old High German burissa (“wallet”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- ppurse
- pruse
- pures
- purrse
- pursse
- pusre
- uprse
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of purse - 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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "purse", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).