mi
/miː/noun, symbol
mi is spelled M-I: 2 letters and one syllable. It appears 20 times per million words in written English, the 4,302nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “me vs mi” about 170 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, mi means “A syllable used in sol-fa (solfège) to represent the third note of a major scale” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in mi?
| Letters | 2: M-I |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 20 times per million words; the 4,302nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like |
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).
How common is mi?
Mi appears 20 times per million words in written English, the 4,302nd 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 mi?
- /miː/
Mi has one syllable (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-mi.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with mi
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: me (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What does mi mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A syllable used in sol-fa (solfège) to represent the third note of a major scale.
- 2
Sometimes syllable for the seventh.
noun
- 1
Initialism of middle initial.
- 2
Initialism of military intelligence.
- 3
Initialism of myocardial infarction.
- 4
Initialism of mitral insufficiency.
- 5
Initialism of mesioincisal.
- 6
Initialism of mathematical induction.
- 7
Initialism of mechanical index.
- 8
Initialism of medical inspection.
symbol
- 1
Alternative form of mi. (“mile”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Mi in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense third note of a major scale:
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 mi come from?
From Glover's solmization, from Middle English mi (“third degree or note of Guido of Arezzo's hexachordal scales”), Italian mi in the solmization of Guido of Arezzo, from the first syllable of Latin mīra (“miracles; the miraculous”) in the lyrics of the scale-ascending hymn Ut queant laxis by Paulus Deacon.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).