cited
/ˈsaɪtɪd/
"cited" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cited” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #4,357 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #4,357
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - simple past and past participle of cite
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cited |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈsaɪtɪd/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #4,357 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “cited” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for cited is 5 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈsaɪtɪd/. Corpus data places it at rank #4,357 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "simple past and past participle of cite".
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for cited, with forms such as "ccited", "cietd", and "citde". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "CTE", "city", "cute", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct English form is cited, spelled C-I-T-E-D.
Definition
- 1simple past and past participle of cite
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccited,cietd,citde,citedd,citted,ctied,icted
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of cited - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "cited"?
What does "cited" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "cited"?
How do you pronounce "cited"?
What language does "cited" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “cited”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-I-T-E-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈsaɪtɪd/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “CTE” - see the side-by-side comparison. cited vs CTE
- 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.