minute
/ˈmɪnɪt/
"minute" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“minute” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #1,124 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #1,124
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 18
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A unit of time which is one sixtieth of an hour (sixty seconds).
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 | minute |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈmɪnɪt/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #1,124 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 18 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “minute” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for minute is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈmɪnɪt/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,124 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 11 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for minute, with forms such as "imnute", "minnute", and "mintue". 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 18 confusable-pair relationships, "mute", "mite", "monte", 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 mynute, minute, mynet, from Old French minute, from Medieval Latin minūta (“60th of an hour; note”). Doublet of menu and menudo. The correct English form is minute, spelled M-I-N-U-T-E.
Definition
- 1A unit of time which is one sixtieth of an hour (sixty seconds).
- 2A short but unspecified time period.
- 3A unit of angle equal to one-sixtieth of a degree.
- 4A (usually formal) written record of a meeting or a part of a meeting.
- 5A unit of purchase on a telephone or other similar network, especially a cell phone network, roughly equivalent in gross form to sixty seconds' use of the network.
- 6A point in time; a moment.
- 7A nautical or a geographic mile.
- 8An old coin, a half farthing.
- 9A very small part of anything, or anything very small; a jot; a whit.
- 10A fixed part of a module.
- 11A while or a long unspecified period of time.
Etymology
From Middle English mynute, minute, mynet, from Old French minute, from Medieval Latin minūta (“60th of an hour; note”). Doublet of menu and menudo.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: imnute,minnute,mintue,minuet,minutte,miunte,mminute,mniute
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of minute - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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
How do you spell "minute"?
What does "minute" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "minute"?
How do you pronounce "minute"?
What is the origin of the word "minute"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “minute”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-I-N-U-T-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈmɪnɪt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “mute” - see the side-by-side comparison. minute vs mute
- 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.