put down

verb

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"put-down" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“put down” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
8
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To insult, belittle, or demean.

Corpus desk

Index EN-put-down · put down · English

put down · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "P" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

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.

Key facts for put down
PropertyValue
Headwordput down
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters8
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “put down” sits in English frequency

put downfalls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

put down is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 17 senses are on record.

No generated misspelling entries exist for put down in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct English form is put down, spelled P-U-T- -D-O-W-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    To insult, belittle, or demean.
  2. 2
    Of money as deposit, to pay.
  3. 3
    To halt, eliminate, stop, or squelch, often by force.
  4. 4
    To euthanize (an animal).
  5. 5
    To execute (a person), especially extrajudicially.
  6. 6
    To write (something).
  7. 7
    To terminate a call on (a telephone); to hang up.
  8. 8
    To add a name to a list.
  9. 9
    To make prices, or taxes, lower.
  10. 10
    To place a baby somewhere to sleep.
  11. 11
    To give something as a reason for something else.
  12. 12
    Of an aircraft, to land.
  13. 13
    To drop someone off, or let them out of a vehicle.
  14. 14
    To cease, temporarily or permanently, reading (a book).
  15. 15
    To drink.
  16. 16
    To set type in lowercase; to switch type from capital to lowercase letters.
  17. 17
    Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see put, down.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how put down appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. They frequently put down their little sister for walking slowly.
  2. People try to put us down / Just because we get around.

Synonyms

registerenlistset downtouch down

This word in other languages

menospreciar(Español)poser(Français)absetzen(Deutsch)

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "put down"?
"put down" is spelled P-U-T- -D-O-W-N.
What does "put down" mean?
As a verb, "put down" means: To insult, belittle, or demean.
What language does "put down" come from?
"put down" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

What to do next

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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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list