English homophones
might/mite
"might" (#207 written frequency) beats "mite" (#26,169) in this 2-word /maɪt/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /maɪt/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "might" leads at #207, with "mite" trailing at #26,169.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "mi" then splits - "might" (5 letters) vs "mite" (4).
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across might, mite: imt. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
might
5 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVCCC
Inventory ghimt · private gh
mite
4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCV
Inventory eimt · private e
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "might" when you mean: Power, strength, force, or influence held by a person or group.
- Write "mite" when you mean: Any of many minute arachnids which, along with the ticks, comprise subclass Acari (syn. Acarina).
Known mistypes of these spellings
Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.
Each spelling
Nearby English homophone groups
What to do next
You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (might, mite). Here's where to go from here.
- "might" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #207 in English). Full entry
- Among English homophone groups, a cluster of 2 spellings ranks #133 by size (1,007 groups in this vintage). Corpus statistics
- Explore a nearby 2-spelling cluster: Mrs · Misses. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "might, mite" has its own headword page with definition, IPA, and misspelling variants. First entry
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.