bite
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
4 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "bite", 4-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "bite" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "bite" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
bite is aEnglishverb. It means: To cut into something by clamping the teeth. Pronounced /baɪt/. It ranks #4,213 in English word frequency. Often confused with Bt and but.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | bite |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /baɪt/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #4,213 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for bite is 4 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /baɪt/. Corpus data places it at rank #4,213 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 18 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 5 documented wrong-spelling variants for bite, with forms such as "bbite", "biet", and "bitte". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Bt", "but", "bye", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: 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”). Cognates include Saterland Frisian biete (“bite”), West Frisian bite (“bite”), Dut… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is bite, spelled B-I-T-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1To cut into something by clamping the teeth.
- 2To hold something by clamping one's teeth.
- 3To attack with the teeth.
- 4To behave aggressively; to reject advances.
- 5To take hold; to establish firm contact with.
- 6To have significant effect, often negative.
- 7To bite a baited hook or other lure and thus be caught.
- 8To accept something offered, often secretly or deceptively, to cause some action by the acceptor.
- 9To sting.
- 10To cause a smarting sensation; to have a property which causes such a sensation; to be pungent.
- 11To cause sharp pain or damage to; to hurt or injure.
- 12To cause sharp pain; to produce anguish; to hurt or injure; to have the property of so doing.
- 13To take or keep a firm hold.
- 14To take hold of; to hold fast; to adhere to.
- 15To lack quality; to be worthy of derision; to suck.
- 16To perform oral sex on. Used in invective.
- 17To plagiarize, to imitate.
- 18To deceive or defraud; to take in.
Etymology
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”). Cognates include Saterland Frisian biete (“bite”), West Frisian bite (“bite”), Dutch bijten (“bite”), German Low German bieten (“bite”), German beißen, beissen (“bite”), Danish bide (“bite”), Swedish bita (“bite”), Norwegian Bokmål bite (“bite”), Norwegian Nynorsk bita (“bite”), Icelandic bíta (“bite”), Gothic 𐌱𐌴𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (beitan, “bite”), Latin findō (“split”), Ancient Greek φείδομαι (pheídomai), Sanskrit भिद् (bhid, “break”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: bbite,biet,bitte,btie,ibte
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for bite
Misspelling Variants of "bite"
Frequency rank: #4,213 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter B in our English index: