glint
/ɡlɪnt/
"glint" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“glint” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #44,227 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #44,227
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A short flash of light, usually when reflected off a shiny surface.
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 | glint |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɡlɪnt/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #44,227 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “glint” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for glint is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɡlɪnt/. Corpus data places it at rank #44,227 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for glint, with forms such as "gglint", "gilnt", and "glinnt". 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, "goin", "grin", "grit", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: 15th century. Borrowed from Scots glint, from Middle English glenten (“to shine, gleam; flash”), probably from Old Norse *glenta, from Proto-Germanic *glantijaną, causitive of Proto-Germanic *glintaną (“to gleam, shine”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰley- (“… The correct English form is glint, spelled G-L-I-N-T.
Definition
- 1A short flash of light, usually when reflected off a shiny surface.
- 2A brief look; a glance.
Etymology
15th century. Borrowed from Scots glint, from Middle English glenten (“to shine, gleam; flash”), probably from Old Norse *glenta, from Proto-Germanic *glantijaną, causitive of Proto-Germanic *glintaną (“to gleam, shine”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰley- (“to shine”). Cognate with Danish glente, Swedish glänta, Norwegian Nynorsk gletta (“to peep, look”), Middle High German glinzen; compare also Swedish glinta (“to slip, slide, gleam, shine”), Swedish glimt (“flash, glint, glimpse”), Norwegian Nynorsk glanta, gletta (“to glide, slip”). Reintroduced into literary English by Robert Burns.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: gglint,gilnt,glinnt,glintt,glitn,gllint,glnit,lgint
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of glint - 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
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Using “glint”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is G-L-I-N-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɡlɪnt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “goin” - see the side-by-side comparison. glint vs goin
- 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.