keep one's mouth shut
"keep-one-s-mouth-shut" is a 17-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“keep one's mouth shut” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as a verb - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 21
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To keep a secret; to refrain from speaking indiscreetly or carelessly; broadly, to refrain from speaking altogether.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | keep one's mouth shut |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 21 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “keep one's mouth shut” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for keep one's mouth shut is 21 letters long, classified as a verb. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "To keep a secret; to refrain from speaking indiscreetly or carelessly; broadly, to refrain from speaking altogether.".
keep one's mouth shut has no tracked misspelling variants, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is keep one's mouth shut, spelled K-E-E-P- -O-N-E-'-S- -M-O-U-T-H- -S-H-U-T.
Definition
- 1To keep a secret; to refrain from speaking indiscreetly or carelessly; broadly, to refrain from speaking altogether.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "keep one's mouth shut"?
What does "keep one's mouth shut" mean?
What language does "keep one's mouth shut" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “keep one's mouth shut”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is K-E-E-P- -O-N-E-'-S- -M-O-U-T-H- -S-H-U-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.