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PlainSpell

bitter

bit·terUK /ˈbɪt.ə/adjective, adverb, noun

bitter is spelled B-I-T-T-E-R: 6 letters and 2 syllables (bit·ter). It appears 16 times per million words in written English, the 5,025th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, bitter means “Having an acrid taste (usually from a basic substance)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in bitter?

Letters6: B-I-T-T-E-R
Syllables2: bit·ter
In writing16 times per million words; the 5,025th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is bitter?

Bitter appears 16 times per million words in written English, the 5,025th 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 bitter?

  • UK /ˈbɪt.ə/
  • UK [ˈbɪt.ʰə]
  • UK [ˈbɪʔ.ə]

Bitter has 2 syllables, split bit·ter in writing.

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

What rhymes with bitter?

4 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as bitter from its last stressed vowel (/ɪtə/, British pronunciation):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of bitter

  • more bitter comparative
  • bitterer comparative
  • most bitter superlative
  • bitterest superlative
  • bitters plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • bittering participle, present
  • bittered participle, past

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

What does bitter mean?

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

adjective

  1. 1

    Having an acrid taste (usually from a basic substance).

    The coffee tasted bitter.

  2. 2

    Harsh, piercing, acerbic or stinging.

    It was at the end of February, […] when the world was cold, and a bitter wind howled down the moors […].

  3. 3

    Hateful or hostile.

    They're bitter enemies.

  4. 4

    Cynical and resentful.

    I've been bitter ever since that defeat.

adverb

  1. 1

    To an intense or severe degree; bitterly.

noun

  1. 1

    A liquid or powder, made from bitter herbs, used in mixed drinks or as a tonic.

  2. 2

    A type of beer heavily flavored with hops.

  3. 3

    A turn of a cable about the bitts.

  4. 4

    informalA hardware system whose architecture is based around units of the specified number of bits (binary digits).

verb

  1. 1

    archaicTo make bitter.

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

Bitter in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchamer (having an acrid taste), dur, sévère, rude (harsh, piercing or stinging), haineux, haïssable (hateful or hostile)
Germanbitter, herb (having an acrid taste), arg, harsch, hart (harsh, piercing or stinging)
Portugueseamargo (having an acrid taste), agudo, penetrante (harsh, piercing or stinging), encarniçado (hateful or hostile), amargurado (cynical and resentful)
Spanishamargo, acibarado, amargoso, amaro (desus.) (having an acrid taste), amargado (cynical and resentful), bíter (liquid or powder used in mixed drinks or as…)

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 bitter come from?

From Middle English bitter, bittre, from Old English bitter, biter (“bitter”), from Proto-West Germanic *bitr, from Proto-Germanic *bitraz (“bitter”), equivalent to bite + -er (agent noun suffix) used attributively. Cognate with Saterland Frisian, West Frisian, Low German, Danish, Dutch, German, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish bitter, Icelandic bitur (all meaning “bitter”).

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

What to look up after bitter