pursuit
pur·suit/pəˈsjuːt/noun
pursuit is spelled P-U-R-S-U-I-T, 2 syllables: pur·suit. The wrong spelling people search most is persuit: about 430 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 10 of all searches for the word. Pursuit is a noun meaning “The act of pursuing”. The plural of pursuit is pursuits.
How many letters and syllables are in pursuit?
| Letters | 7: P-U-R-S-U-I-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: pur·suit |
| In writing | 13 times per million words; the 5,878th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, persuit, about 430 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; 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 pursuit?
Pursuit is spelled P-U-R-S-U-I-T. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 10 of the searches for pursuit 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 pursuit?
Pursuit appears 13 times per million words in written English, the 5,878th 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 pursuit?
- UK /pəˈsjuːt/
- UK /pɜː-/
- UK /-ʃuːt/
Pursuit has 2 syllables, split pur·suit in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-pursuit.ogg, En-us-pursuit.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with pursuit?
6 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as pursuit from its last stressed vowel (/ut/, British pronunciation):
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 pursuit
- pursuits plural
- poursuit
- pursuite
- pursiut
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does pursuit mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The act of pursuing.
Unremitting pursuit of wealth doesn't bring happiness, particularly if successful.
- 2
A hobby or recreational activity, done regularly.
- 3
A discipline in track cycling where two opposing teams start on opposite sides of the track and try to catch their opponents.
- 4
obsoleteprosecution
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Pursuit in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | poursuite |
| German | Verfolgung, Streben |
| Portuguese | perseguição |
| Spanish | persecución, caza , actividad, interés |
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 pursuit come from?
From Middle English pursuyte, from Old French poursuite, from the verb porsuir (“to pursue”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).