mild
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
4 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "mild", 4-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "mild" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "mild" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
mild is anEnglishadj. It means: Gentle and not easily angered. Pronounced /ˈmaɪld/. It ranks #5,982 in English word frequency. Often confused with ML and mix.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | mild |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adj |
| IPA | /ˈmaɪld/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #5,982 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for mild is 4 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈmaɪld/. Corpus data places it at rank #5,982 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 6 documented wrong-spelling variants for mild, with forms such as "imld", "midl", and "mildd". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ML", "mix", "min", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English milde, from Old English milde (“mild”), from Proto-Germanic *mildijaz (“mild”), from Proto-Indo-European *melh₂- (“to beat, pound, grind”). Cognate with Scots mild, myld (“mild”), Saterland Frisian milde (“mild”), West Frisian myld (“mil… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is mild, spelled M-I-L-D, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Gentle and not easily angered.
- 2Of only moderate severity; not strict.
- 3Not overly felt or seriously intended.
- 4Not serious or dangerous.
- 5Moderately warm, especially less cold than expected.
- 6Acting gently and without causing harm.
- 7Not sharp or bitter; not strong in flavor.
Etymology
From Middle English milde, from Old English milde (“mild”), from Proto-Germanic *mildijaz (“mild”), from Proto-Indo-European *melh₂- (“to beat, pound, grind”). Cognate with Scots mild, myld (“mild”), Saterland Frisian milde (“mild”), West Frisian myld (“mild”), Dutch mild (“mild”), Low German milde (“mild”), German mild (“mild”), Danish, Swedish and Norwegian Bokmål mild (“mild”), Icelandic mildur (“mild”), Latin mollis (“soft, gentle”), Lithuanian malonus (“pleasing, pleasant, kind”), Old Norse mildr.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: imld,midl,mildd,milld,mlid,mmild
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for mild
Misspelling Variants of "mild"
Frequency rank: #5,982 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter M in our English index: