hermit
her·mit/ˈhɝmɪt/noun
hermit is spelled H-E-R-M-I-T: 6 letters and 2 syllables (her·mit). It appears 1.6 times per million words in written English, the 22,073rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, hermit means “A religious recluse; someone who lives alone for religious reasons; an eremite” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of hermit is hermits.
How many letters and syllables are in hermit?
| Letters | 6: H-E-R-M-I-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: her·mit |
| In writing | 1.6 times per million words; the 22,073rd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is hermit?
Hermit appears 1.6 times per million words in written English, the 22,073rd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce hermit?
- US /ˈhɝmɪt/
- UK /ˈhɜːmɪt/
Hermit has 2 syllables, split her·mit in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-hermit.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with hermit?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as hermit (/ɜɹmɪt/).
Spelled with the same letters in another order: mither.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of hermit
- hermits plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does hermit mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A religious recluse; someone who lives alone for religious reasons; an eremite.
- 2
A recluse; someone who lives alone and shuns human companionship.
- 3
A spiced cookie made with molasses, raisins, and nuts.
- 4
A hermit crab.
- 5
Any in the subfamily Phaethornithinae of hummingbirds.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Hermit in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | ermite, ermitane |
| German | Einsiedler, Eremit, Klausner |
| Portuguese | eremita, ermitão |
| Spanish | ermitaño , botarga, eremita |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does hermit come from?
From Middle English hermite, heremite, eremite, from Old French eremite, from Ecclesiastical Latin, Late Latin eremita, from Ancient Greek ἐρημίτης (erēmítēs, “person of the desert”) from ἐρημία (erēmía, “desert, solitude”), from ἔρημος (érēmos) or ἐρῆμος (erêmos, “uninhabited”) plus -ίτης (-ítēs, “one connected to, a member of”). Doublet of eremite. Displaced native Old English ānsetla.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).