mightvsmiteWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“might” and “mite” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#207
“might” frequency rank
#26,169
“mite” frequency rank
26376
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature might mite
Definition Power, strength, force, or influence held by a person or group. Any of many minute arachnids which, along with the ticks, comprise subclass Acari (syn. Acarina).

Same sound, different letters: might vs mite

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 3 letters.

5 ch
might
4 ch
mite

Same sound, different spelling - might / mite

This is the hard kind. might and mite are pronounced identically (/maɪt/) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26376, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

might is recorded at frequency rank #207, classified as anoun, pronounced /maɪt/. mite is at rank #26,169, tagged as anoun, pronounced /maɪt/.

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 26376, this pair ranks #387,160 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of might vs mite

Shared letters: imt. Private to "might": gh. Private to "mite": e.

"might" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "mite" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mightimght · mgiht · migght · mighht · mightt · migth · mihgt · mmight
  • miteimte · miet · mitte · mmite · mtie

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "might" and "mite" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (/maɪt/), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "might" or "mite"?
"might" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #207 in our English list, against #26,169 for "mite". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

"might" and "mite" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "might" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mite" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #387,160 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "might" and "mite" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "miser vs mite". 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 #387,160 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list