acquit
/əˈkwɪt/
"acquit" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“acquit” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #48,042 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #48,042
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 3
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To declare or find innocent or not guilty.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | acquit |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /əˈkwɪt/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #48,042 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “acquit” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for acquit is 6 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /əˈkwɪt/. Corpus data places it at rank #48,042 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for acquit, with forms such as "accquit", "acqiut", and "acqquit". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 3 confusable-pair relationships, "acuity", "Asquith", "acquire", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English aquī̆ten (“to give in return; to pay, repay; to redeem (a pledge, security), to make good (a promise); to make amends; to relieve of an obligation; to acquit, clear of a charge; to free; to deprive of; to do one's part, acquit oneself; t… The correct English form is acquit, spelled A-C-Q-U-I-T.
Definition
- 1To declare or find innocent or not guilty.
- 2To discharge (for example, a claim or debt); to clear off, to pay off; to fulfil.
- 3to discharge, release, or set free from a burden, duty, liability, or obligation, or from an accusation or charge.
- 4To bear or conduct oneself; to perform one's part.
- 5To clear oneself.
- 6past participle of acquit.
- 7To release, to rescue, to set free.
- 8To pay for; to atone for.
Etymology
From Middle English aquī̆ten (“to give in return; to pay, repay; to redeem (a pledge, security), to make good (a promise); to make amends; to relieve of an obligation; to acquit, clear of a charge; to free; to deprive of; to do one's part, acquit oneself; to act, behave (in a certain way)”), from Old French aquiter (“to act, do”) and Medieval Latin acquitāre (“to settle a debt”), from ad- (“to”) + quitare (“to free”), equivalent to a- + quit. Doublet of acquiet; also related to quit, quiet and acquiesce.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: accquit,acqiut,acqquit,acquitt,acquti,acuqit,aqcuit,caquit
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of acquit - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “acquit”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-C-Q-U-I-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /əˈkwɪt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “acuity” - see the side-by-side comparison. acquit vs acuity
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.