little by little
"little-by-little" is a 14-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“little by little” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 16
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A small amount at a time.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | little by little |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| Letters | 16 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “little by little” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
little by little is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadverb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A small amount at a time.".
Zero misspellings are on record for little by little in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct English form is little by little, spelled L-I-T-T-L-E- -B-Y- -L-I-T-T-L-E.
Definition
- 1A small amount at a time.
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
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Using “little by little”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is L-I-T-T-L-E- -B-Y- -L-I-T-T-L-E - 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.