midge

/mɪd͡ʒ/

//mɪd͡ʒ// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"midge" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“midge” has 7 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #38,967. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#38,967
frequency rank, English
4,057
“M” headwords
7
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Any of various small two-winged flies, for example, from the family Chironomidae or non-biting midges, the family Chaoboridae or phantom midges, and the family Ceratopogonidae or biting midges, all...

Corpus desk

Index EN-midge · midge · English

midge · rank #38,967 · 7 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #38,967
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 7 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,057
  • PHOTO-FINISH mesmerized

Nearest frequency peer: mesmerized (-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.

Rank peers near misspelling magnet “midge”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “midge” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

midge vs mig
60% similar
midge vs Mie
40% similar
midge vs mine
60% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for midge
PropertyValue
Headwordmidge
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/mɪd͡ʒ/
Letters5
Frequency rank#38,967
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “midge”

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).midgelands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Same rarity band neighbours include “mesmerized” (#38,966), “MEK” (#38,965), “minotaur” (#38,969). Among 4,057 “M” headwords, “midge” is #38,967. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 7 spelling variants around midge (IPA /mɪd͡ʒ/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #38,967 among 4,057 “M” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for midge, with forms such as "imdge", "mdige", and "middge". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "mig", "Mie", "mine", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English mydge, migge, from Old English mygg, myċġ (“midge, gnat”), from Proto-West Germanic *muggju, from Proto-Germanic *mugjō, from Proto-Indo-European *mū- (“fly, midge”), *mu-, *mew-. The dialectal sense of "short person" was originally figu… The correct English form is midge, spelled M-I-D-G-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Any of various small two-winged flies, for example, from the family Chironomidae or non-biting midges, the family Chaoboridae or phantom midges, and the family Ceratopogonidae or biting midges, all belonging to the order Diptera.
  2. 2
    A small, short or insignificant person.
  3. 3
    Any bait or lure designed to resemble a midge.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. "I am being eaten alive!" cried Pippin. "Midgewater! There are more midges than water!"
  2. Devils Lake is where I began my career as a limnologist in 1964, studying the lake’s neotenic salamanders and chironomids, or midge flies. […] The Devils Lake Basin is an endorheic, or closed, basin covering about 9,800 square kilometers in northeastern North Dakota.

Etymology

From Middle English mydge, migge, from Old English mygg, myċġ (“midge, gnat”), from Proto-West Germanic *muggju, from Proto-Germanic *mugjō, from Proto-Indo-European *mū- (“fly, midge”), *mu-, *mew-. The dialectal sense of "short person" was originally figurative, and gave rise to midget (“short person”) via the diminutive suffix -et, which has since become part of standard English with that meaning; this has caused midge to undergo rebracketing as a clipping of midget. Cognates * Scots mige (“midge”) * Saterland Frisian Määge (“gnat, mosquito”) * West Frisian mich (“fly, mosquito”) * West Flemish meezje (“midge, mosquito”) * Dutch mug (“midge, gnat, mosquito”) * German Low German Mügge (“midge, gnat, mosquito”) * German Mücke (“midge, gnat, mosquito”) * Swedish mygg, mygga (“midge, gnat, mosquito”) * Icelandic mý (“midge, gnat, fly”) The Proto-Indo-European root was also the source of * Latin musca * Ancient Greek μυῖα (muîa) * Russian му́ха (múxa) * Latvian muša * Czech muchnička * Albanian mizë * Armenian մուն (mun)

This word in other languages

jején(Español)moucheron(Français)Mücke(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • imdge
  • mdige
  • middge
  • mideg
  • midgge
  • migde
  • mmidge

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of midge - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

imdge2mdige2middge1mideg2midgge1migde2mmidge1
Edit distance from "midge"

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

How do you spell "midge"?
"midge" is spelled M-I-D-G-E. The IPA pronunciation is /mɪd͡ʒ/.
What does "midge" mean?
As a noun, "midge" means: Any of various small two-winged flies, for example, from the family Chironomidae or non-biting midges, the family Chaoboridae or phantom midges, and the family Ceratopogonidae or biting midges, all...
What words are commonly confused with "midge"?
"midge" is commonly confused with "mig", "Mie", "mine". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "midge"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "midge" is /mɪd͡ʒ/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "midge"?
From Middle English mydge, migge, from Old English mygg, myċġ (“midge, gnat”), from Proto-West Germanic *muggju, from Proto-Germanic *mugjō, from Proto-Indo-European *mū- (“fly, midge”), *mu-, *mew-. The dialectal sense of "short person" was origi... See the full etymology section above for more details.
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.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "midge", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Medea#38,964Moana#38,972Najib#38,989Leyte#38,942

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).

laity7 variantsoddball7 variantsOxfam7 variantsjaden7 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list