# mosquito

> English word · Noun · IPA /mɒˈskiː.təʊ/ · frequency rank #12,810

## Definitions
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.

## Etymology
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.

## Easily confused with
- **mesquite** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/mesquite-vs-mosquito)

## Common misspellings (11)
`mmosquito`, `moqsuito`, `mosqiuto`, `mosqquito`, `mosquiot`, `mosquitto`, `mosqutio`, `mossquito`, `mosuqito`, `msoquito`, `omsquito`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/mosquito