glitch
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
6 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "glitch", 6-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "glitch" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "glitch" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
glitch is aEnglishnoun. It means: A problem affecting function. Pronounced /ˈɡlɪt͡ʃ/. Often confused with glitz and grinch.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | glitch |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɡlɪt͡ʃ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #16,032 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 4 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for glitch is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɡlɪt͡ʃ/. Corpus data places it at rank #16,032 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.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 10 documented wrong-spelling variants for glitch, with forms such as "gglitch", "giltch", and "glicth". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 4 confusable-pair relationships, "glitz", "grinch", "glitches", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Probably borrowed from Yiddish גליטש (glitsh), from German glitschig (“slippy”), from glitschen (“to slide, glide, slip”) + -ig (“-y”). Related to gleiten (“glide”). Cognate with French glisser (“to slip, slide, skid”). Popularized in the 1960s, by the US s… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is glitch, spelled G-L-I-T-C-H, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A problem affecting function.
- 2An unexpected behavior in an electrical signal, especially if the signal spontaneously returns to expected behavior after a period of time.
- 3A bug or an exploit.
- 4A genre of experimental electronic music since the 1990s, characterized by a deliberate use of sonic artifacts that would normally be viewed as unwanted noise.
- 5A sudden increase in the rotational frequency of a pulsar.
Etymology
Probably borrowed from Yiddish גליטש (glitsh), from German glitschig (“slippy”), from glitschen (“to slide, glide, slip”) + -ig (“-y”). Related to gleiten (“glide”). Cognate with French glisser (“to slip, slide, skid”). Popularized in the 1960s, by the US space program. Attested in 1962 by American astronaut John Glenn, in reference to spikes in electrical current.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: gglitch,giltch,glicth,glitcch,glitchh,glithc,glittch,gllitch,gltich,lgitch
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for glitch
Misspelling Variants of "glitch"
Frequency rank: #16,032 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter G in our English index: