mosquito
mos·qui·to/məsˈki.toʊ/noun, verb
mosquito is spelled M-O-S-Q-U-I-T-O: 8 letters and 3 syllables (mos·qui·to). It appears 4.1 times per million words in written English, the 12,764th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, mosquito means “A small flying insect of the family Culicidae, the females of which bite humans and animals and suck blood, leaving an itching bump on the skin, and…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of mosquito is mosquitoes or mosquitos.
How many letters and syllables are in mosquito?
| Letters | 8: M-O-S-Q-U-I-T-O |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: mos·qui·to |
| In writing | 4.1 times per million words; the 12,764th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with |
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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is mosquito?
Mosquito appears 4.1 times per million words in written English, the 12,764th 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 mosquito?
- UK /mɒˈskiː.təʊ/
- US /məsˈki.toʊ/
- /məsˈkitə/
Mosquito has 3 syllables, split mos·qui·to in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-mosquito.ogg, En-uk-mosquito.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with mosquito?
10 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as mosquito from its last stressed vowel (/itoʊ/):
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 mosquito
- mosquitoes plural
- mosquitos plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- mosquitoing participle, present
- mosquitoed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does mosquito mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A small flying insect of the family Culicidae, the females of which bite humans and animals and suck blood, leaving an itching bump on the skin, and sometimes carrying diseases like malaria, dengue and yellow fever.
verb
- 1
To fly close to the ground, seemingly without a course.
noun
- 1
The De Havilland Mosquito, a Second World War military aircraft.
- 2
datedDated form of Miskito.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Mosquito in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense small flying insect of the family Culicidae, known for biting and sucking blood:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | moustique, maringouin |
| German | Mücke, Stechmücke, Schnake, Gelse, Moskito |
| Portuguese | mosquito, melga |
| Spanish | mosquito, mosco, plaga, zancudo, cénzalo, cínife |
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 mosquito come from?
Borrowed from Spanish mosquito (“gnat”), diminutive of mosca (“fly”), from Latin musca (“fly”), from Proto-Indo-European *mūs- (“fly, stinging fly, gnat”). Cognate with West Flemish meuzie (“mosquito”), dialectal Swedish mausa (“fly”), Lithuanian musė (“a fly”) and Sicilian muschitta (“midge”). See also midge. First attested in the 1580s.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).