migraine
/ˈmaɪɡɹeɪn/noun
migraine is spelled M-I-G-R-A-I-N-E. The wrong spelling people search most is migrane: about 660 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 14 of all searches for the word. Migraine is a noun meaning “A severe, disabling headache, usually affecting only one side of the head, and often accompanied by nausea…”. The plural of migraine is migraines.
How many letters and syllables are in migraine?
| Letters | 8: M-I-G-R-A-I-N-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 2.1 times per million words; the 18,811th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, migrane, about 660 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
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 do you spell migraine?
Migraine is spelled M-I-G-R-A-I-N-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 15 of the searches for migraine in either form.
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). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is migraine?
Migraine appears 2.1 times per million words in written English, the 18,811th 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 migraine?
- UK /ˈmaɪɡɹeɪn/
- UK /ˈmiːɡɹeɪn/
- US /ˈmaɪɡɹeɪn/
Migraine has 2 syllables (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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-migraine.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of migraine
- migraines plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does migraine mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A severe, disabling headache, usually affecting only one side of the head, and often accompanied by nausea, vomiting, photophobia and visual disturbances.
He had a headache so bad that he wished he was dead, but it was the sort of migraine that promised him he would continue to suffer but not die.
- 2
A neurological condition characterised by such headaches.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Migraine in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense headache usually affecting only one side of the head:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | migraine |
| German | Migräne |
| Portuguese | enxaqueca, hemicrania |
| Spanish | migraña, jaqueca, hemicránea, clavo |
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 migraine come from?
First appears c. 1425. A respelling (following French) of the late 14th century Middle English megrim, from the 13th century Old French migraigne, from Vulgar Latin pronunciation of Latin hemicrania (“a pain in one half of the head”), from Ancient Greek ἡμικρανία (hēmikranía), from ἡμι- (hēmi-, “hemi-, half”) + κρανίον (kraníon, “the skull”) (whence also cranium), a calque of Egyptian gs-tp (“a headache”), from gs (“half”) + tp (“the head”), although the link between the Egyptian magical papyri and the Greek ἡμικρανία (hēmikranía) could be purely incidental. Cognate to megrim, hemicrania.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).