litter
/ˈlɪt.ɚ/
"litter" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“litter” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #11,063 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #11,063
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Straw, grass, and similar loose material used as bedding for people or animals.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | litter |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈlɪt.ɚ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #11,063 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “litter” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for litter is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈlɪt.ɚ/. Corpus data places it at rank #11,063 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 13 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for litter, with forms such as "iltter", "litetr", and "litterr". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "liver", "lotte", "little", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English litere, lytere, etc., from Anglo-Norman litere, litiere, etc., from Old French litiere (“bedding; bed of loose straw; litter”), from Late Latin lectuāria (“bedding; blankets”), from Latin lectus (“bed; couch”) + -āria (“forming related n… The correct English form is litter, spelled L-I-T-T-E-R.
Definition
- 1Straw, grass, and similar loose material used as bedding for people or animals.
- 2Straw, grass, and similar loose material used as bedding for people or animals.
- 3Straw, grass, and similar loose material used as bedding for people or animals.
- 4A mobile bed or couch transported upon or suspended from poles placed over human shoulders or animal backs.
- 5A mobile bed or couch transported upon or suspended from poles placed over human shoulders or animal backs.
- 6A mobile bed or couch transported upon or suspended from poles placed over human shoulders or animal backs.
- 7Synonym of straw, grass, etc. more generally, particularly in plaster, thatch, and mulch.
- 8An act of giving birth to a number of live young at the same time.
- 9The whole group of live young born at the same time, typically in reference to mammals or (figurative, derogatory) unpleasant people or objects.
- 10Waste or debris, originally any mess but now particularly trash left or thrown on the ground.
- 11A bed, a substrate formed from loose materials.
- 12The layer of fallen leaves and other loose organic material on the ground in a forest.
- 13Fuller's earth, clay pellets, wood chips, or other similar loose absorbent materials used for the waste of pet animals.
Etymology
From Middle English litere, lytere, etc., from Anglo-Norman litere, litiere, etc., from Old French litiere (“bedding; bed of loose straw; litter”), from Late Latin lectuāria (“bedding; blankets”), from Latin lectus (“bed; couch”) + -āria (“forming related nouns”), from Proto-Italic *lektos (“[thing] lain upon”), from *leɣō (“to lie down”), from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ-. Cognate with French lit and litière.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: iltter,litetr,litterr,littre,llitter,ltiter
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of litter - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “litter”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is L-I-T-T-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈlɪt.ɚ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “liver” - see the side-by-side comparison. litter vs liver
- 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.