pus
/pʌs/noun, verb
pus is spelled P-U-S: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 1.0 times per million words in written English, the 28,214th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “pus vs puss” about 170 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, pus means “A whitish-yellow or yellow substance composed primarily of dead white blood cells and dead pyogenic bacteria, normally found in regions of bacterial…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of pus is pura.
How many letters and syllables are in pus?
| Letters | 3: P-U-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.0 times per million words; the 28,214th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
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 common is pus?
Pus appears 1.0 times per million words in written English, the 28,214th 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 pus?
- US /pʌs/
- /pʊs/
Pus has one syllable (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-pus.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with pus
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: puss.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with pus?
6 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as pus from its last stressed vowel (/ʌs/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: ups, sup.
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 pus
- pura plural
- puss
- pusses present, singular, he/she/it
- pussing participle, present
- pussed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does pus mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A whitish-yellow or yellow substance composed primarily of dead white blood cells and dead pyogenic bacteria, normally found in regions of bacterial infection.
Pus was seeping out of the wound.
noun
- 1
UKInitialism of permanent undersecretary.
noun
- 1
plural of PU
verb
- 1
rareTo emit pus.
For quotations using this term, see Citations:pus.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Pus in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense fluid found in regions of infection:
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 pus come from?
From Middle English pus (15th c.), a borrowing from Latin pus (“pus”). Widely displaced quitter and atter in this sense.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).