little man

noun

"little-man" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“little man” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
10
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An ordinary man of no particular fame or accomplishment; especially, everyone who is an underdog by the nature of not being rich or powerful.

Corpus desk

Index EN-little-man · little man · English

little man · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "L" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

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.

Key facts for little man
PropertyValue
Headwordlittle man
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters10
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “little man” in English

little manranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

little man is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.

Zero misspellings are on record for little man in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is little man, spelled L-I-T-T-L-E- -M-A-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    An ordinary man of no particular fame or accomplishment; especially, everyone who is an underdog by the nature of not being rich or powerful.
  2. 2
    A young boy.
  3. 3
    A man with dwarfism, or short stature resulting from a medical condition.
  4. 4
    The penis.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how little man appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Near-synonym: common man
  2. Who's going to look out for the little man as insurers increasingly weasel out of paying claims?

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

How do you spell "little man"?
"little man" is spelled L-I-T-T-L-E- -M-A-N.
What does "little man" mean?
As a noun, "little man" means: An ordinary man of no particular fame or accomplishment; especially, everyone who is an underdog by the nature of not being rich or powerful.
What language does "little man" come from?
"little man" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list