mic
/ˈmaɪk/
"mic" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“mic” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #9,498) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #9,498
- frequency rank, English
- 4,057
- “M” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Alternative form of mike (“microphone”).
Corpus desk
Index EN-mic · mic · English
mic · rank #9,498 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #9,498
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,057
- PHOTO-FINISH memo
Nearest frequency peer: memo (-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 neighbours of confusable “mic”
Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below
- masterpiece
masterpiece
90,506 corpus weight
- melody
melody
90,505 corpus weight
- memo
memo
90,504 corpus weight
- mic
mic
90,503 corpus weight
- mirrors
mirrors
90,502 corpus weight
- Myanmar
Myanmar
90,500 corpus weight
What this shows Bars place “mic” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.
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 | mic |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈmaɪk/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #9,498 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Corpus rank beside confusables of “mic”
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for mic is neighbouring look-alikes ("my", "Mr", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /ˈmaɪk/. Frequency #9,498 among 4,057 “M” headwords. Gloss: "Alternative form of mike (“microphone”).".
mic doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "my", "Mr", "MS", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Clipping of microphone. Attested since 1961. The correct English form is mic, spelled M-I-C.
Definition
- 1Alternative form of mike (“microphone”).
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how mic appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Picture a mic, the stage is empty A beat like this might tempt me To pose, show my rings and my fat gold chain Grab the mic like I'm on Soul Train
Etymology
Clipping of microphone. Attested since 1961.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "mic", not the corpus desk frequency band.