fitch
"fitch" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“fitch” has 8 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #20,636. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #20,636
- frequency rank, English
- 2,507
- “F” headwords
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 16
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A polecat, such as the European polecat (Mustela putorius), the striped polecat, steppe polecat, or black-footed polecat of America.
Corpus desk
Index EN-fitch · fitch · English
fitch · rank #20,636 · 8 variants · 16 confusables
- FREQ-MID #20,636
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 16 pairs
- VAR-MID 8 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,507
- PHOTO-FINISH fiancée
Nearest frequency peer: fiancée (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “fitch”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- fad
fad
79,367 corpus weight
- fiancée
fiancée
79,366 corpus weight
- fitch
fitch
79,365 corpus weight
- fledged
fledged
79,364 corpus weight
- forcefully
forcefully
79,362 corpus weight
- foreground
foreground
79,361 corpus weight
What this shows “fitch” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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 | fitch |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #20,636 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 16 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “fitch”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 8 spelling variants around fitch, anoun. Corpus frequency is #20,636 among 2,507 “F” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for fitch, with forms such as "ffitch", "ficth", and "fitcch". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 16 confusable-pair relationships, "FTC", "fits", "frith", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Shortening of fitchew, or directly borrowed from its antecedent, Middle Dutch vitsche (“polecat”). More at fitchew. The correct English form is fitch, spelled F-I-T-C-H.
Definition
- 1A polecat, such as the European polecat (Mustela putorius), the striped polecat, steppe polecat, or black-footed polecat of America.
- 2A skin of a polecat.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how fitch appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The more beautiful of the two comes from a North American species, the black-footed pole-cat (No. 3), which is creamy yellow, sprinkled with black. Made-up skins of this species are sold as "natural fitch" to distinguish them from those of the common fitch, which are generally dyed. The finest skins of this pole-cat, now nearly extinct in Great Britain, a…
Not only as it been quite difficult to eliminate the yellow tinge from the dyed fur, but practically every fur dyer has had to admit his inability to make the dyed fitch permanent in color or prevent it from very quickly turning or fading to a sickening shade of red […]
Etymology
Shortening of fitchew, or directly borrowed from its antecedent, Middle Dutch vitsche (“polecat”). More at fitchew.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- ffitch
- ficth
- fitcch
- fitchh
- fithc
- fittch
- ftich
- iftch
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of fitch - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "fitch", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).