mischievous
mis·chie·vous/ˈmɪs.t͡ʃɪ.vəs/adjective
mischievous is spelled M-I-S-C-H-I-E-V-O-U-S, 3 syllables: mis·chie·vous. The wrong spelling people search most is mischeivous: about 30 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 93 of all searches for the word. Mischievous is an adjective meaning “Causing mischief; injurious”.
How many letters and syllables are in mischievous?
| Letters | 11: M-I-S-C-H-I-E-V-O-U-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: mis·chie·vous |
| In writing | 1.4 times per million words; the 23,835th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, mischeivous, about 30 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell mischievous?
Mischievous is spelled M-I-S-C-H-I-E-V-O-U-S. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 94 of the searches for mischievous in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is mischievous?
Mischievous appears 1.4 times per million words in written English, the 23,835th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce mischievous?
- /ˈmɪs.t͡ʃɪ.vəs/
- /ˈmɪs.t͡ʃə.vəs/
- /mɪsˈt͡ʃiː.vi.əs/
Mischievous has 3 syllables, split mis·chie·vous in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-mischievous.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Aadenboy-mischevious.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with mischievous?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as mischievous.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: mischevious.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of mischievous
- more mischievous comparative
- most mischievous superlative
- mischievious
- mischevious
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does mischievous mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Causing mischief; injurious.
- 2
Troublesome, cheeky, badly behaved, impish, naughty, disobedient; showing a fondness for causing trouble in a playful way and liking to have fun by playing harmless tricks on people or doing things they are not supposed to do.
Matthew had a twin brother called Edward, who was always mischievous and badly behaved.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Mischievous in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | espiègle , coquin, malicieux, malin, méchant |
| German | boshaft, schädlich , unartig, ungehorsam, dreist, frech |
| Portuguese | bagunceiro, sapeca , levado, travesso |
| Spanish | pícaro, travieso |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does mischievous come from?
From Middle English myschevous, mischevous, from Anglo-Norman meschevous, from Old French meschever, from mes- (“mis-”) + chever (“come to an end”) (from chef (“head”)). By surface analysis, mischief + -ous.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).