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PlainSpell

institute

in·sti·tute/ˈɪnstɪtjuːt/noun, verb

institute is spelled I-N-S-T-I-T-U-T-E, 3 syllables: in·sti·tute. The wrong spelling people search most is insitute: about 50 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 59 of all searches for the word. Institute is a noun meaning “An organization founded to promote a cause”. The plural of institute is institutes.

How many letters and syllables are in institute?

Letters9: I-N-S-T-I-T-U-T-E
Syllables3: in·sti·tute
In writing63 times per million words; the 1,668th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, insitute, about 50 Bing searches a month (all of them)

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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How do you spell institute?

Institute is spelled I-N-S-T-I-T-U-T-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 59 of the searches for institute in either form.

institutethe right spelling2,890 searches a month
insitutea missing t50 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is institute?

Institute appears 63 times per million words in written English, the 1,668th 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 institute?

  • /ˈɪnstɪtjuːt/
  • /ˈɪnstɪtuːt/
  • /ˈɪnstɪt͡ʃuːt/

Institute has 3 syllables, split in·sti·tute in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-institute.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of institute

  • institutes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • instituting participle, present
  • instituted participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does institute mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    An organization founded to promote a cause

    I work in a medical research institute.

  2. 2

    An institution of learning; a college, especially for technical subjects

  3. 3

    The building housing such an institution.

  4. 4

    obsoleteThe act of instituting; institution.

  5. 5

    obsoleteThat which is instituted, established, or fixed, such as a law, habit, or custom.

  6. 6

    ScotlandThe person to whom an estate is first given by destination or limitation.

verb

  1. 1

    To begin or initiate (something); to found.

    He instituted the new policy of having children walk through a metal detector to enter school.

  2. 2

    obsoleteTo train, instruct.

  3. 3

    To nominate; to appoint.

  4. 4

    To invest with the spiritual charge of a benefice, or the care of souls.

adjective

  1. 1

    obsoleteEstablished; organized; founded.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate institute?

Wiktionary records 5 abbreviations of institute: Inst., inst., instit, instit., tute.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Institute in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchinstitut (organization founded to promote a cause), instituer, fonder, lancer (to begin or initiate something)
Spanishinstituto (organization founded to promote a cause), instituir (to begin or initiate something)
Germaninstituieren, initiieren, einführen (to begin or initiate something), Institut (college)
Portugueseinstituto (college)

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 institute come from?

From French institut, from Middle French, from Latin īnstitūtum.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after institute