dither
/ˈdɪðə/
"dither" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“dither” is an uncommon English word, ranked #83,191 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #83,191
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To tremble, shake, or shiver.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | dither |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈdɪðə/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #83,191 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “dither” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for dither is 6 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈdɪðə/. Corpus data places it at rank #83,191 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for dither, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Variant of didder, from Middle English dideren (“to tremble”). Compare Middle English bididren, bididdren (“to seduce, deceive”), from Old English bedidrian, bedyderian (“to deceive, trick”). Alternatively, perhaps with expressive voicing from *titeren, fro… The correct English form is dither, spelled D-I-T-H-E-R.
Definition
- 1To tremble, shake, or shiver.
- 2To be uncertain or unable to make a decision; to vacillate, hesitate, or delay.
- 3To do something nervously.
- 4To apply an algorithm to digital data to minimize the effects of quantization:
- 5To apply an algorithm to digital data to minimize the effects of quantization:
Etymology
Variant of didder, from Middle English dideren (“to tremble”). Compare Middle English bididren, bididdren (“to seduce, deceive”), from Old English bedidrian, bedyderian (“to deceive, trick”). Alternatively, perhaps with expressive voicing from *titeren, from Proto-Germanic *titrōną. If so, then a doublet of teeter and cognate with Old High German zittarōn (German zittern) and Old Norse titra (Faroese titra, Icelandic titra). Alternatively an unrelated reduplicative onomatopoeia.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “dither”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-I-T-H-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈdɪðə/ (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.