put
/pʊt/verb, noun
put is spelled P-U-T: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 457 times per million words in written English, the 207th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “put vs putt” about 40 times a month (Google, United States). As a verb, put means “To physically place (sth or sb swh)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in put?
| Letters | 3: P-U-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 457 times per million words; the 207th 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 put?
Put appears 457 times per million words in written English, the 207th 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 put?
- US /pʊt/
- US [pʰʊʔt]
- British /pɵt/
As a noun (“A fellow, especially an eccentric or elderly one; a duffer”): /pʌt/.
Put 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: En-uk-to_put.ogg, En-us-put.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with put
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: putt.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with put?
2 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as put from its last stressed vowel (/ʊt/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: tup.
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 put
- puts present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- putting participle, present
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does put mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To physically place (sth or sb swh).
She put her books on the table.
- 2
To place in abstract; to attach or attribute; to assign.
The government put restrictions on vehicle imports.
- 3
To bring or set (into a certain relation, state or condition).
Put your house in order!
- 4
To express (something in a certain manner).
When you put it that way, I guess I can see your point.
- 5
To set before one for judgment, acceptance, or rejection; to bring to the attention.
I put it to you, Sir, that you are a thief and a liar.
- 6
To set as a calculation or estimate.
They have put the cost of repairs at around £10 million.
- 7
To steer; to direct one's course; to go.
to put to sea
- 8
To sell (assets) under the terms of a put option.
He got out of his Procter and Gamble bet by putting his shares at 80.
noun
- 1
Ellipsis of put option (“right to sell something at a predetermined price”)
He bought a January '08 put for Procter and Gamble at 80 to hedge his bet.
- 2
The act of putting; an action; a movement; a thrust; a push.
the put of a ball
- 3
An old card game.
- 4
obsoleteA fellow, especially an eccentric or elderly one; a duffer.
- 5
obsoleteA prostitute.
noun
- 1
Acronym of parameterized unit test.
- 2
Acronym of parameterized unit testing.
- 3
Initialism of programmable unijunction transistor.
- 4
Initialism of person using television.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Put in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | placer, mettre, poser |
| German | setzen, stellen, legen, tun , bringen , kugelstoßen |
| Portuguese | pôr, colocar, botar , deixar |
| Spanish | poner, colocar, sestar |
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 put come from?
From Middle English putten, pitten, pytten, puten, poten, from Old English putian, *pūtian ("to push, put out"; attested by derivative putung (“pushing, impulse, instigation, urging”)) and potian (“to push, thrust, strike, butt, goad”), both from Proto-West Germanic *putōn, from Proto-Germanic *putōną (“to stick, stab”), which is of uncertain origin. Possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bud- (“to shoot, sprout”), which would make it cognate with Sanskrit बुन्द (bundá, “arrow”), Lithuanian budė, and budis (“mushroom, fungus”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).