maggot
/ˈmæɡət/
"maggot" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“maggot” has 7 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #38,029. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #38,029
- frequency rank, English
- 4,057
- “M” headwords
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 7
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 2, 2026) - A soft, legless larva of a fly or other dipteran insect, that often eats decomposing organic matter.
Corpus desk
Index EN-maggot · maggot · English
maggot · rank #38,029 · 7 variants · 7 confusables
- FREQ-MID #38,029
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 7 pairs
- VAR-MID 7 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,057
- PHOTO-FINISH Lynchburg
Nearest frequency peer: Lynchburg (-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 “maggot”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- loveliest
loveliest
61,975 corpus weight
- Lynchburg
Lynchburg
61,973 corpus weight
- maggot
maggot
61,972 corpus weight
- Mahesh
Mahesh
61,971 corpus weight
- Malek
Malek
61,970 corpus weight
- malkin
malkin
61,969 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “maggot” 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 | maggot |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈmæɡət/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #38,029 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 7 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “maggot” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 7 spelling variants around maggot (IPA /ˈmæɡət/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #38,029 among 4,057 “M” headwords. Wiktionary lists 5 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for maggot, with forms such as "amggot", "maggott", and "maggto". 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 7 confusable-pair relationships, "mango", "Margo", "magnet", 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 magot, magat, maked, probably a metathetic alteration of maddock, maðek (“worm", "maggot”), originally a diminutive form of a base represented by Old English maþa (Scots mathe), from Proto-West Germanic *maþō, from Proto-Germanic *maþô, … The correct English form is maggot, spelled M-A-G-G-O-T.
Definition
- 1A soft, legless larva of a fly or other dipteran insect, that often eats decomposing organic matter.
- 2A worthless person.
- 3A whimsy or fancy.
- 4A fan of the American metal band Slipknot.
- 5Alternative form of MAGAt.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how maggot appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Drop and give me fifty, maggot.
"Maggot!" said Catweazle angrily. "Sit thee down!"
Etymology
From Middle English magot, magat, maked, probably a metathetic alteration of maddock, maðek (“worm", "maggot”), originally a diminutive form of a base represented by Old English maþa (Scots mathe), from Proto-West Germanic *maþō, from Proto-Germanic *maþô, from the Proto-Indo-European root *mat, which was used in insect names, equivalent to made + -ock. Near-cognates include Dutch made, German Made and Swedish mask, Icelandic maðkur (“worm, grub, maggot”). The use of maggot to mean a fanciful or whimsical thing derives from the folk belief that a whimsical or crotchety person had maggots in their brain.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- amggot
- maggott
- maggto
- magogt
- magot
- mgagot
- mmaggot
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of maggot - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 "maggot" mean?
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "maggot", 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.