lint
/lɪnt/noun, verb
lint is spelled L-I-N-T: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 29,270th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “lent vs lint” about 50 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, lint means “Clinging fuzzy fluff that clings to fabric or accumulates in one's pockets or navel etc” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of lint is lints.
How many letters and syllables are in lint?
| Letters | 4: L-I-N-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words; the 29,270th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; 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 common is lint?
Lint appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 29,270th 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 lint?
- /lɪnt/
Lint has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-lint.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with lint
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of lint
- lints plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- linting participle, present
- linted participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does lint mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Clinging fuzzy fluff that clings to fabric or accumulates in one's pockets or navel etc.
Clean the lint out of the vacuum cleaner's filter.
- 2
A fine material made by scraping cotton or linen cloth; used for dressing wounds.
- 3
The fibrous coat of thick hairs covering the seeds of the cotton plant.
- 4
Raw cotton ready for baling.
verb
- 1
To perform a static check on (source code) to detect stylistic or programmatic errors.
You should lint your JavaScript code before committing it.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Lint in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | peluche, mouton , charpie |
| German | Fussel, Fluse , Verbandmull, Scharpie , Flaum |
| Portuguese | cotão , gaze |
| Spanish | pelusa, tamo, flojel, flojuelo , gasa |
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 lint come from?
From Middle English lynet, linet, from Old French linette (“grain of flax”), diminutive of lin (“flax”); or, from Medieval Latin linteum, from Latin līnum (“flax”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).