chitin
/ˈkaɪtɪn/
"chitin" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“chitin” is an uncommon English word, ranked #71,399 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #71,399
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A complex polysaccharide, a polymer of N-acetylglucosamine, found in the exoskeletons of arthropods and in the cell walls of fungi; thought to be responsible for some forms of asthma in humans.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | chitin |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkaɪtɪn/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #71,399 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “chitin” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for chitin is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈkaɪtɪn/. Corpus data places it at rank #71,399 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A complex polysaccharide, a polymer of N-acetylglucosamine, found in the exoskeletons of arthropods and in the cell walls of fungi; thought to be responsible for some forms of asthma in humans.".
chitin has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From French chitine, from Latin chitōn (“mollusk”), from Ancient Greek χιτών (khitṓn). See also chiton. The correct English form is chitin, spelled C-H-I-T-I-N.
Definition
- 1A complex polysaccharide, a polymer of N-acetylglucosamine, found in the exoskeletons of arthropods and in the cell walls of fungi; thought to be responsible for some forms of asthma in humans.
Etymology
From French chitine, from Latin chitōn (“mollusk”), from Ancient Greek χιτών (khitṓn). See also chiton.
This word in other languages
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.
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Using “chitin”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-H-I-T-I-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈkaɪtɪn/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.