put to sleep

verb

"put-to-sleep" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

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

Unranked
below top-frequency English
12
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To cause (someone) to sleep.

Corpus desk

Index EN-put-to-sleep · put to sleep · English

put to sleep · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 12 letters
  • VOW-4 4 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 to sleep
PropertyValue
Headwordput to sleep
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters12
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “put to sleep” in English

put to sleepranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

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

Rare enough to double-check

put to sleep is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 5 senses are on record.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for put to sleep, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is put to sleep, spelled P-U-T- -T-O- -S-L-E-E-P.

Definition

  1. 1
    To cause (someone) to sleep.
  2. 2
    To help (someone) to bed; put to bed.
  3. 3
    To render dormant.
  4. 4
    To kill an animal painlessly, often with an injection; to euthanize.
  5. 5
    To give a general anesthetic prior to surgery.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. When even the silence and seclusion of this retreat failed to bring slumber, he sometimes called in a professional mesmerizer to put him into a hypnotic sleep, from which Sawyer knew how to arouse him at a fixed time. This habit, as well as the existence of the underground chamber, were secrets known only to Sawyer and the hypnotist who rendered his servi…
  2. 1916, Stratemeyer Syndicate, Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on Grandpa's Farm, Chapter XXV: Grandpa's Horses, Grandpa Brown rode off with Mr. and Mrs. Kendall; and Bunny and Sue were given a good dinner and put to sleep that afternoon, for they were tired, sleepy and hungry.

This word in other languages

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 to sleep"?
"put to sleep" is spelled P-U-T- -T-O- -S-L-E-E-P.
What does "put to sleep" mean?
As a verb, "put to sleep" means: To cause (someone) to sleep.
What language does "put to sleep" come from?
"put to sleep" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list