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PlainSpell

litter

/ˈlɪt.ɚ/noun, verb, adjective

litter is spelled L-I-T-T-E-R: 6 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 5.1 times per million words in written English, the 11,015th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “liter vs litter” about 110 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, litter means “Straw, grass, and similar loose material used as bedding for people or animals” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of litter is litters.

How many letters and syllables are in litter?

Letters6: L-I-T-T-E-R
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing5.1 times per million words; the 11,015th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Rhymes with
Same letters

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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is litter?

Litter appears 5.1 times per million words in written English, the 11,015th 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 litter?

  • US /ˈlɪt.ɚ/
  • [ˈlɪɾ.ɚ]

Litter has 2 syllables (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: En-us-litter.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with litter

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

liter vs litter110 G

Also written: letter, liter, litre.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with litter?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as litter from its last stressed vowel (/ɪtəɹ/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: titler, tilter.

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 litter

  • litters plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • liter
  • litere
  • lytter
  • lyttre
  • littor
  • littour
  • litre
  • licter
  • letter
  • lictier
  • licture
  • litour
  • littier
  • littre
  • littering participle, present

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

What does litter mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    Straw, grass, and similar loose material used as bedding for people or animals.

    Quen he had made me hale and fere

  2. 2

    obsoleteA bed, especially a pile of straw (sometimes also with blankets) used as a bed.

    Near-synonyms: pallet, straw bed, hay bed (all broadly synonymous)

  3. 3

    Animal bedding together with its dung.

  4. 4

    A mobile bed or couch transported upon or suspended from poles placed over human shoulders or animal backs.

    ... In a lytter made tho full royall...

  5. 5

    Synonym of stretcher, such a vehicle used for transporting the sick and injured, inclusive of designs carried in the hand.

  6. 6

    Any of the other similar conveyances, such as sedan chairs, hammock litters, and the like.

  7. 7

    obsoleteSynonym of straw, grass, etc. more generally, particularly in plaster, thatch, and mulch.

  8. 8

    obsoleteAn act of giving birth to a number of live young at the same time.

verb

  1. 1

    To drop or throw trash without properly disposing of it (as discarding in public areas rather than trash receptacles).

    By tossing the bottle out the window, he was littering.

  2. 2

    To scatter carelessly about.

  3. 3

    To strew (a place) with scattered articles.

  4. 4

    To give birth to, in the manner of animals.

  5. 5

    To produce a litter of young.

  6. 6

    To supply (cattle etc.) with litter; to cover with litter, as the floor of a stall.

  7. 7

    To be supplied with litter as bedding; to sleep or make one's bed in litter.

adjective

  1. 1

    comparative form of lit: more lit (a form of lit)

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

Litter in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchlitière (bedding for animals), portée (animals born in one birth), détritus (discarded items), jeter des ordures (drop or throw trash without properly disposing…)
GermanStreu, Stroh (bedding for animals), Wurf (animals born in one birth), Sänfte, Trage, Bahre (platform designed to carry a person or a load –…)
Spanishcama, lecho (bedding for animals), camada, lechigada (animals born in one birth), litera, artolas (platform designed to carry a person or a load –…)
Portugueseninhada (animals born in one birth), andor, charola, palanquim, liteira, maca (platform designed to carry a person or a load –…)

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 litter come from?

Inherited from Middle English litere, borrowed from Anglo-Norman litere, from Old French litiere (“bedding; bed of loose straw; litter”), from Late Latin lectuāria, from Latin lectus + -āria.

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

What to look up after litter