moat
/məʊt/
"moat" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“moat” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #24,831 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #24,831
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A deep, wide defensive ditch, normally filled with water, surrounding a fortified habitation.
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 | moat |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /məʊt/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #24,831 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “moat” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for moat is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /məʊt/. Corpus data places it at rank #24,831 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for moat, with forms such as "maot", "mmoat", and "moatt". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "MT", "mom", "mob", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English mote, from Old French mote (“mound, embankment”); compared also to Old French motte (“hillock, lump, clod, turf”), from Medieval Latin mota (“a mound, hill”), of Germanic origin, perhaps via Frankish *mot, *motta (“mud, peat, bog, turf”)… The correct English form is moat, spelled M-O-A-T.
Definition
- 1A deep, wide defensive ditch, normally filled with water, surrounding a fortified habitation.
- 2An aspect of a business which makes it more "defensible" from competitors, because of the nature of its products, services or franchise or for some other reason.
- 3A circular lowland between a resurgent dome and the walls of the caldera surrounding it.
- 4A clear ring outside the eyewall of a tropical cyclone.
- 5A hill or mound.
Etymology
From Middle English mote, from Old French mote (“mound, embankment”); compared also to Old French motte (“hillock, lump, clod, turf”), from Medieval Latin mota (“a mound, hill”), of Germanic origin, perhaps via Frankish *mot, *motta (“mud, peat, bog, turf”), from Proto-Germanic *mutô, *mudraz, *muþraz (“dirt, filth, mud, swamp”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mut- (“dark, dirty”). Cognate with Alemannic German Mott, Mutte (“peat, turf”), Bavarian Mott (“peat, turf”), dialectal Dutch mot (“dust, fine sand”), Saterland Frisian mut (“grit, litter, humus”), Swedish muta (“to drizzle”), Old English mot (“speck, particle”). More at mote, mud, smut. As term for a business strategy, popularized by American investor Warren Buffett.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: maot,mmoat,moatt,mota,omat
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of moat - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 “moat”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-O-A-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /məʊt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “MT” - see the side-by-side comparison. moat vs MT
- 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.