mind
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 "mind", 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 "mind" 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 "mind" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
mind is aEnglishnoun. It means: The capability for rational thought. Pronounced /maɪnd/. It ranks #378 in English word frequency. Often confused with MN and mix.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | mind |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /maɪnd/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #378 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for mind is 4 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /maɪnd/. Corpus data places it at rank #378 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 11 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 mind, with forms such as "imnd", "midn", and "mindd". 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, "MN", "mix", "MUD", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English minde, munde, imynde, imunde, ȝemynde, ȝemunde, from Old English mynd, ġemynd (“mind, memory”), from Proto-West Germanic *mundi, *gamundi, from Proto-Germanic *mundiz, *gamundiz (“memory, remembrance”), from Proto-Indo-European *méntis (… 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 mind, spelled M-I-N-D, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1The capability for rational thought.
- 2The ability to be aware of things.
- 3The ability to remember things.
- 4The ability to focus the thoughts.
- 5Somebody that embodies certain mental qualities.
- 6Judgment, opinion, or view.
- 7Desire, inclination, or intention.
- 8A healthy mental state.
- 9The non-material substance or set of processes in which consciousness, perception, affectivity, judgement, thinking, and will are based.
- 10Continual prayer on a dead person's behalf for a period after their death.
- 11Attention, consideration or thought.
Etymology
From Middle English minde, munde, imynde, imunde, ȝemynde, ȝemunde, from Old English mynd, ġemynd (“mind, memory”), from Proto-West Germanic *mundi, *gamundi, from Proto-Germanic *mundiz, *gamundiz (“memory, remembrance”), from Proto-Indo-European *méntis (“thought”) (compare also mantis, via Greek), from the root *men- (“to think”). Cognate with Old High German gimunt ("mind, memory, remembrance"; Middle High German munst (“love, benevolence, joy”)), Old Norse mynd (“image, model”), Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌼𐌿𐌽𐌳𐍃 (gamunds, “remembrance, memory, mind”). Related also to Danish minde (“memory”), Swedish minne (“memory”), Icelandic minni (“memory, recall, recollection”), Latin mēns (“mind, reason”), Sanskrit मनस् (mánas), Ancient Greek μένος (ménos), Albanian mënd (“mind, reason”). Related to mantra. Compare also Old English myntan (“to mean, intend, purpose, determine, resolve”). More at mint.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: imnd,midn,mindd,minnd,mmind,mnid
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for mind
Misspelling Variants of "mind"
Frequency rank: #378 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter M in our English index: