mistaken
/mɪˈsteɪkn̩/
"mistaken" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“mistaken” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #7,363 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #7,363
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 4
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - past participle of mistake
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 | mistaken |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /mɪˈsteɪkn̩/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #7,363 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 4 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “mistaken” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for mistaken is 8 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /mɪˈsteɪkn̩/. Corpus data places it at rank #7,363 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "past participle of mistake".
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for mistaken, with forms such as "imstaken", "misatken", and "misstaken". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 4 confusable-pair relationships, "mistakes", "mistaking", "mistakenly", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Morphologically mistake + -n. The correct English form is mistaken, spelled M-I-S-T-A-K-E-N.
Definition
- 1past participle of mistake
Etymology
Morphologically mistake + -n.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: imstaken,misatken,misstaken,mistaekn,mistakenn,mistakken,mistakne,mistkaen,misttaken,mitsaken,mmistaken,msitaken
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of mistaken - 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
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Using “mistaken”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-I-S-T-A-K-E-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /mɪˈsteɪkn̩/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “mistakes” - see the side-by-side comparison. mistaken vs mistakes
- 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.