little
/ˈlɪ.tl̩/
"little" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“little” has 7 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #173. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #173
- frequency rank, English
- 2,297
- “L” headwords
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 10
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 2, 2026) - Small in size.
Corpus desk
Index EN-little · little · English
little · rank #173 · 7 variants · 10 confusables
- FREQ-CORE #173
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 10 pairs
- VAR-MID 7 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,297
- PHOTO-FINISH high
Nearest frequency peer: high (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “little”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- help
help
99,830 corpus weight
- high
high
99,829 corpus weight
- little
little
99,828 corpus weight
- old
old
99,827 corpus weight
- since
since
99,826 corpus weight
- another
another
99,825 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “little” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | little |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈlɪ.tl̩/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #173 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 10 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “little” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 7 spelling variants around little (IPA /ˈlɪ.tl̩/), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #173 among 2,297 “L” headwords. Wiktionary lists 12 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for little, with forms such as "ilttle", "litle", and "litlte". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 10 confusable-pair relationships, "lotte", "Lottie", "littlest", 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 litel, from Old English lyttel, lȳtel, from Proto-West Germanic *lūtil, from Proto-Germanic *lūtilaz (“tending to stoop, crouched, little”), from Proto-Indo-European *lewd- (“to bend, bent, small”), equivalent to lout + -le. Cognate with… The correct English form is little, spelled L-I-T-T-L-E.
Definition
- 1Small in size.
- 2Small in size.
- 3Insignificant, trivial.
- 4Insignificant, trivial.
- 5Very young, of childhood age.
- 6Younger.
- 7Used with the name of a place, especially of a country or its capital, to denote a neighborhood whose residents or storekeepers are from that place.
- 8Used with the name of a place, especially of a country or its capital, to denote a neighborhood whose residents or storekeepers are from that place.
- 9Having few members.
- 10Operating on a small scale.
- 11Short in duration; brief.
- 12Small in extent of views or sympathies; narrow, shallow, contracted; mean, illiberal, ungenerous.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how little appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
This is a little table.
It’s only a little way now.
Etymology
From Middle English litel, from Old English lyttel, lȳtel, from Proto-West Germanic *lūtil, from Proto-Germanic *lūtilaz (“tending to stoop, crouched, little”), from Proto-Indo-European *lewd- (“to bend, bent, small”), equivalent to lout + -le. Cognate with Dutch luttel, regional German lütt and lützel, Saterland Frisian litje, West Frisian lyts, Low German lütt, lüttje. Related also to Old English lūtan (“to bow, bend low”); and perhaps to Old English lytiġ (“deceitful”), Gothic 𐌻𐌹𐌿𐍄𐍃 (liuts, “deceitful”); compare also Icelandic lítill (“little”), Faroese lítil, Swedish liten, Danish liden, lille, Gothic 𐌻𐌴𐌹𐍄𐌹𐌻𐍃 (leitils), which appear to have a different root vowel. More at lout.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- ilttle
- litle
- litlte
- littel
- littlle
- llittle
- ltitle
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of little - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 2, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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What does "little" mean?
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "little", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).
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.