despite
/dɪˈspaɪt/
"despite" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“despite” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #1,075 in English word frequency and used as a preposition.
- #1,075
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 5
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - In spite of, not with standing.
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 | despite |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Preposition |
| IPA | /dɪˈspaɪt/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #1,075 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 5 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “despite” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for despite is 7 letters long, classified as a preposition, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /dɪˈspaɪt/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,075 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "In spite of, not with standing.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for despite, with forms such as "ddespite", "depsite", and "desipte". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 5 confusable-pair relationships, "despot", "dispute", "desire", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: The noun is derived from Middle English despit, dispit, from Old French despit, from Latin dēspectum (“looking down on”), from dēspiciō (“to look down, despise”). The preposition is derived from Middle English dispit, itself derived from the phrase in dispi… The correct English form is despite, spelled D-E-S-P-I-T-E.
Definition
- 1In spite of, not with standing.
Etymology
The noun is derived from Middle English despit, dispit, from Old French despit, from Latin dēspectum (“looking down on”), from dēspiciō (“to look down, despise”). The preposition is derived from Middle English dispit, itself derived from the phrase in dispit of (in despite of). Compare typologically Russian несмотря́ на (nesmotrjá na) (< смотре́ть (smotrétʹ)); невзира́я на (nevzirája na) (< взира́ть (vzirátʹ)), презре́в (prezrév) (< презре́ть (prezrétʹ) <~ зреть (zretʹ)) (compare despite—despise relation).
Synonyms
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ddespite,depsite,desipte,despiet,despitte,desppite,desptie,desspite,dsepite,edspite
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of despite - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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
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Using “despite”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-E-S-P-I-T-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /dɪˈspaɪt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “despot” - see the side-by-side comparison. despite vs despot
- 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.