mimesis
/mɪˈmiːsɪs/
"mimesis" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“mimesis” is uncommon English (frequency #89,634 among 4,057 “M” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #89,634
- frequency rank, English
- 4,057
- “M” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The representation of aspects of the real world, especially human actions, in literature and art.
Corpus desk
Index EN-mimesis · mimesis · English
mimesis · rank #89,634 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #89,634
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,057
- PHOTO-FINISH minimus
Nearest frequency peer: minimus (+3 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.
Long-tail ranks near “mimesis”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- midrib
midrib
10,372 corpus weight
- mimesis
mimesis
10,367 corpus weight
- minimus
minimus
10,364 corpus weight
- misapplied
misapplied
10,362 corpus weight
- mistranslat…
mistranslation
10,360 corpus weight
- mistrustful
mistrustful
10,359 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “mimesis” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | mimesis |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /mɪˈmiːsɪs/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #89,634 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “mimesis” in English
Rare enough to double-check
mimesis is uncommon English at frequency #89,634 among 4,057 “M” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /mɪˈmiːsɪs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 5 senses are on record.
mimesis doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Ancient Greek μῑ́μησις (mī́mēsis), from μιμεῖσθαι (mimeîsthai, “to imitate”), from μῖμος (mîmos, “a mime”). By surface analysis, mime + -esis. The correct English form is mimesis, spelled M-I-M-E-S-I-S.
Definition
- 1The representation of aspects of the real world, especially human actions, in literature and art.
- 2Mimicry.
- 3The appearance of symptoms of a disease not actually present.
- 4The rhetorical pedagogy of imitation.
- 5The imitation of another's gestures, pronunciation, or utterance.
Etymology
From Ancient Greek μῑ́μησις (mī́mēsis), from μιμεῖσθαι (mimeîsthai, “to imitate”), from μῖμος (mîmos, “a mime”). By surface analysis, mime + -esis.
This word in other languages
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 "mimesis", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).