bite one's lip
"bite-one-s-lip" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“bite one's lip” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 14
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To forcibly prevent oneself from speaking, especially in order to avoid saying something inappropriate or likely to cause a dispute.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | bite one's lip |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 14 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “bite one's lip” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
bite one's lip is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To forcibly prevent oneself from speaking, especially in order to avoid saying something inappropriate or likely to cause a dispute.".
bite one's lip doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is bite one's lip, spelled B-I-T-E- -O-N-E-'-S- -L-I-P.
Definition
- 1To forcibly prevent oneself from speaking, especially in order to avoid saying something inappropriate or likely to cause a dispute.
Synonyms
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “bite one's lip”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-I-T-E- -O-N-E-'-S- -L-I-P - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.