mite
/maɪt/
"mite" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“mite” has 5 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #26,169. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #26,169
- frequency rank, English
- 4,057
- “M” headwords
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Any of many minute arachnids which, along with the ticks, comprise subclass Acari (syn. Acarina).
Corpus desk
Index EN-mite · mite · English
mite · rank #26,169 · 5 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #26,169
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 5 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,057
- PHOTO-FINISH momentary
Nearest frequency peer: momentary (+1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “mite”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- metaphysics
metaphysics
73,835 corpus weight
- meticulously
meticulously
73,834 corpus weight
- mite
mite
73,832 corpus weight
- momentary
momentary
73,831 corpus weight
- Montague
Montague
73,830 corpus weight
- moratorium
moratorium
73,829 corpus weight
What this shows “mite” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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 | mite |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /maɪt/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #26,169 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “mite”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 5 spelling variants around mite (IPA /maɪt/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #26,169 among 4,057 “M” headwords. Wiktionary lists 6 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for mite, with forms such as "imte", "miet", and "mitte". 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, "MT", "mix", "MTV", 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 mite, from Old English mīte (“mite, tiny insect”), from Proto-West Germanic *mītā, from Proto-Germanic *mītǭ (“biting insect”, literally “cutter”), from *maitaną (“to cut”), from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“small”) or *meh₂y- (“to cut”).… The correct English form is mite, spelled M-I-T-E.
Definition
- 1Any of many minute arachnids which, along with the ticks, comprise subclass Acari (syn. Acarina).
- 2A small coin formerly circulated in England, rated at about a third of a farthing.
- 3A lepton, a small coin used in Judea in the time of Christ.
- 4A small weight; one twentieth of a grain.
- 5Anything very small; a minute object; a very little quantity or particle.
- 6A small or naughty person, or one people take pity on; rascal.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how mite appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
One mite wrung from the lab'rer's hands Shall buy and sell the miser's lands;
It takes a thousand men to invent a telegraph, or a steam engine, or a phonograph, or a photograph, or a telephone or any other important thing — and the last man gets the credit and we forget the others. He added his little mite — that is all he did.
Etymology
From Middle English mite, from Old English mīte (“mite, tiny insect”), from Proto-West Germanic *mītā, from Proto-Germanic *mītǭ (“biting insect”, literally “cutter”), from *maitaną (“to cut”), from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“small”) or *meh₂y- (“to cut”). Akin to Old High German mīza (“mite”), Middle Dutch mīte (“moth, mite”), Dutch mijt (“moth, mite”), Danish mide (“mite”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- imte
- miet
- mitte
- mmite
- mtie
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of mite - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "mite", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (5 here; floor ≥5).