This paper considers the word problem for free inverse monoids of finite rank from a language theory perspective. It is shown that no free inverse monoid has context-free word problem; that the word problem of the free inverse monoid of rank $1$ is both $2$-context-free (an intersection of two context-free languages) and ET0L; that the co-word problem of the free inverse monoid of rank $1$ is context-free; and that the word problem of a free inverse monoid of rank greater than $1$ is not poly-context-free.
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