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bite

/baɪt/verb, noun

bite is spelled B-I-T-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 20 times per million words in written English, the 4,224th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “bight vs bite” about 70 times a month (Google, United States). As a verb, bite means “To cut into something by clamping the teeth” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in bite?

Letters4: B-I-T-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing20 times per million words; the 4,224th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How common is bite?

Bite appears 20 times per million words in written English, the 4,224th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce bite?

  • /baɪt/

Bite has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-bite.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Naomi_Persephone_Amethyst_(NaomiAmethyst)-bite.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with bite

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

bite vs byte10 B
bight vs bite70 G

Sounds like: bight, byte (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of bite

  • bites present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • biting participle, present
  • bit past, participle
  • bitten participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does bite mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    To cut into something by clamping the teeth.

    As soon as you bite that sandwich, you'll know how good it is.

  2. 2

    To hold something by clamping one's teeth.

  3. 3

    To attack with the teeth.

    That dog is about to bite!

  4. 4

    To behave aggressively; to reject advances.

    If you see me, come and say hello. I don't bite.

  5. 5

    To take hold; to establish firm contact with.

    I needed snow chains to make the tires bite.

  6. 6

    To have significant effect, often negative.

    For homeowners with adjustable rate mortgages, rising interest will really bite.

  7. 7

    To bite a baited hook or other lure and thus be caught.

    Are the fish biting today?

  8. 8

    To accept something offered, often secretly or deceptively, to cause some action by the acceptor.

    I've planted the story. Do you think they'll bite?

noun

  1. 1

    The act of biting.

  2. 2

    The wound left behind after having been bitten.

    That snake bite really hurts!

  3. 3

    The swelling of one's skin caused by an insect's mouthparts or sting.

    After just one night in the jungle I was covered with mosquito bites.

  4. 4

    A piece of food of a size that would be produced by biting; a mouthful.

    There were only a few bites left on the plate.

  5. 5

    slangSomething unpleasant.

  6. 6

    slangAn act of plagiarism.

    That song is a bite of my song!

  7. 7

    A small meal or snack.

    a bite to eat

  8. 8

    incisiveness, provocativeness, exactness.

noun

as BITE
  1. 1

    Acronym of behavior, information, thoughts, emotions (“four aspects of people's lives that a cult attempts to control”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Bite in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchmordre (cut into by clamping the teeth), maintenir, garder (take hold), morsure (act of biting), piqûre (swelling of one's skin caused by an insect's…), bouchée (mouthful)
Germanbeißen (cut into by clamping the teeth), Biss (act of biting), Stich (swelling of one's skin caused by an insect's…), Bissen (mouthful)
Portuguesemorder (cut into by clamping the teeth), agarrar (take hold), mordedura, mordida (act of biting), abocanhar (hold something by clamping one’s teeth), cair (fall for a deception)
Spanishmorder, tarascar, atarazar (cut into by clamping the teeth), mordida, mordedura, mordisco (act of biting)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does bite come from?

From Middle English biten, from Old English bītan (“bite”), from Proto-West Germanic *bītan, from Proto-Germanic *bītaną (“bite”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyd- (“split”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after bite