mother
/ˈmʌð.ə/
"mother" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“mother” has 9 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #576. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #576
- frequency rank, English
- 4,057
- “M” headwords
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A female parent, especially of a human; a female who parents a child (which she has given birth to, adopted, or fostered).
Corpus desk
Index EN-mother · mother · English
mother · rank #576 · 9 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-CORE #576
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 9 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,057
- PHOTO-FINISH moment
Nearest frequency peer: moment (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “mother”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- instead
instead
99,428 corpus weight
- main
main
99,427 corpus weight
- moment
moment
99,426 corpus weight
- mother
mother
99,425 corpus weight
- road
road
99,424 corpus weight
- seems
seems
99,423 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “mother” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | mother |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈmʌð.ə/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #576 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “mother” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 9 spelling variants around mother (IPA /ˈmʌð.ə/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #576 among 4,057 “M” headwords. Wiktionary lists 18 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for mother, with forms such as "mmother", "mohter", and "motehr". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "motor", "moths", "mover", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *méh₂tēr Proto-Germanic *mōdēr Proto-West Germanic *mōder Old English mōdor Middle English moder English mother From Middle English moder, from Old English mōdor, from Proto-West Germanic *mōder, from Proto-Germanic *mōdēr… The correct English form is mother, spelled M-O-T-H-E-R.
Definition
- 1A female parent, especially of a human; a female who parents a child (which she has given birth to, adopted, or fostered).
- 2A female who has given birth to a baby; this person in relation to her child or children.
- 3A pregnant female; mother-to-be; a female who gestates a baby.
- 4A female who donates a fertilized egg or donates a body cell which has resulted in a clone.
- 5A female ancestor.
- 6A source or origin.
- 7Something that is the greatest or most significant of its kind. (See mother of all.)
- 8A title of respect for one's mother-in-law.
- 9A term of address for one's wife.
- 10Any elderly woman, especially within a particular community.
- 11Any person or entity which performs mothering.
- 12Dregs, lees; a stringy, mucilaginous or film- or membrane-like substance (consisting of a culture of acetobacters) which develops in fermenting alcoholic liquids (such as wine, or cider), and turns the alcohol into acetic acid with the help of oxygen from the air.
- 13A locomotive which provides electrical power for a slug.
- 14The principal piece of an astrolabe, into which the others are fixed.
- 15The female superior or head of a religious house; an abbess, etc.
- 16Hysterical passion; hysteria; the uterus.
- 17A disc produced from the electrotyped master, used in manufacturing phonograph records.
- 18A person who is admired, respected, or looked up to within a particular fandom or community; see also: serve cunt
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how mother appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
I am visiting my mother today.
The lioness was a mother of four cubs.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *méh₂tēr Proto-Germanic *mōdēr Proto-West Germanic *mōder Old English mōdor Middle English moder English mother From Middle English moder, from Old English mōdor, from Proto-West Germanic *mōder, from Proto-Germanic *mōdēr, from Proto-Indo-European *méh₂tēr. Doublet of Madeira, mata, mater, matrix, and matter. Some have proposed that the "dregs" sense is from Middle Dutch modder (“filth”), from Proto-Germanic *muþraz (“sediment”), but modder is not known in this meaning. On the other hand, words for "mother" have developed the secondary sense of "dregs" in several Romance and Germanic languages; compare Dutch moer, French mère de vinaigre, German Essigmutter, Italian madre, Medieval Latin māter, and Spanish madre.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- mmother
- mohter
- motehr
- motherr
- mothher
- mothre
- motther
- mtoher
- omther
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of mother - 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
How do you spell "mother"?
What does "mother" mean?
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "mother", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (9 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "mother". Here's where to go from here.
- "mother" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "motor". View pair
- 9 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #576 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "M" letter cohort. M–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.