Which to use
“bite” and “bitten” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,213
- “bite” frequency rank
- #15,109
- “bitten” frequency rank
- 19322
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bite | bitten |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To cut into something by clamping the teeth. | past participle of bite |
Where the eye mixes bite and bitten
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: bite vs bitten
A purely visual mix-up. bite (/baɪt/) and bitten (/ˈbɪt.ən/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19322, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bite is recorded at frequency rank #4,213, classified as averb, pronounced /baɪt/. bitten is at rank #15,109, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈbɪt.ən/.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 19322, this pair ranks #438,990 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of bite vs bitten
Shared letters: beit. Private to "bite": -. Private to "bitten": n.
"bite" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "bitten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "bite" and "bitten" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "bite" or "bitten" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "bite" and "bitten" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "bite" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bitten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #438,990 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bite" and "bitten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bitten vs butted". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #438,990 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.