mince
/mɪns/
"mince" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“mince” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #28,293 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #28,293
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Finely chopped meat; minced meat.
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 | mince |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /mɪns/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #28,293 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “mince” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for mince is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /mɪns/. Corpus data places it at rank #28,293 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for mince, with forms such as "imnce", "micne", and "mincce". 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, "mind", "mine", "mini", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English mincen, minsen; partly from Old English minsian, ġeminsian (“to make less, make smaller, diminish”), from Proto-West Germanic *minnisōn, from Proto-Germanic *minnisōną (“to make less”); partly from Old French mincer, mincier (“to cut int… The correct English form is mince, spelled M-I-N-C-E.
Definition
- 1Finely chopped meat; minced meat.
- 2Finely chopped mixed fruit used in Christmas pies; mincemeat.
- 3An affected (often dainty or short and precise) gait.
- 4An affected manner, especially of speaking; an affectation.
- 5An eye (from mince pie).
- 6Something worthless; rubbish.
Etymology
From Middle English mincen, minsen; partly from Old English minsian, ġeminsian (“to make less, make smaller, diminish”), from Proto-West Germanic *minnisōn, from Proto-Germanic *minnisōną (“to make less”); partly from Old French mincer, mincier (“to cut into small pieces”), from mince (“slender, slight, puny”), from Frankish *minsto, *minnisto, superlative of *min, *minn (“small, less”), from Proto-Germanic *minniz (“less”); both from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“small, little”). Cognate with Old Saxon minsōn (“to make less, make smaller”), Old Dutch minson (“to make smaller”), Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌽𐌶𐌽𐌰𐌽 (minznan, “to become less, diminish”), Swedish minska (“to reduce, lessen”), Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌽𐍃 (mins, “slender, slight”). More at min.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: imnce,micne,mincce,minec,minnce,mmince,mnice
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of mince - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 “mince”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-I-N-C-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /mɪns/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “mind” - see the side-by-side comparison. mince vs mind
- 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.