midget
/ˈmɪd͡ʒɪt/
"midget" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“midget” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #20,427 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #20,427
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 7
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A very small thing; especially one which is conspicuously smaller than expected or by comparison.
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 | midget |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈmɪd͡ʒɪt/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #20,427 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 7 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “midget” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for midget is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈmɪd͡ʒɪt/. Corpus data places it at rank #20,427 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for midget, with forms such as "imdget", "mdiget", and "middget". 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, "might", "midst", "millet", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From midge (chiefly in the figurative sense of “small thing”, literally “small fly”) + -et (diminutive suffix), (from Old English myċġ (“mosquito”), from Proto-Germanic *mugjō, from Proto-Indo-European *mus-, *mu-, *mew-; cognate with Dutch mug (“mosquito”)… The correct English form is midget, spelled M-I-D-G-E-T.
Definition
- 1A very small thing; especially one which is conspicuously smaller than expected or by comparison.
- 2Alternative form of midge (“small fly”)
- 3A short person.
- 4Something for use by a small person; especially something designed or made for one.
Etymology
From midge (chiefly in the figurative sense of “small thing”, literally “small fly”) + -et (diminutive suffix), (from Old English myċġ (“mosquito”), from Proto-Germanic *mugjō, from Proto-Indo-European *mus-, *mu-, *mew-; cognate with Dutch mug (“mosquito”) and German Mücke (“midge, gnat”)).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: imdget,mdiget,middget,midegt,midgett,midgget,midgte,migdet,mmidget
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of midget - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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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Using “midget”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-I-D-G-E-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈmɪd͡ʒɪt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “might” - see the side-by-side comparison. midget vs might
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.