mouse
/maʊs/
"mouse" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“mouse” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #4,255 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #4,255
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A rodent, typically having a small body, dark fur, and a long tail.
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 | mouse |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /maʊs/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #4,255 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “mouse” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for mouse is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /maʊs/. Corpus data places it at rank #4,255 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 12 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 mouse, with forms such as "mmouse", "mosue", and "moues". 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, "must", "move", "mute", 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 mous, from Old English mūs, from Proto-West Germanic *mūs, from Proto-Germanic *mūs, from Proto-Indo-European *múHs. Cognates Germanic cognates include Old Frisian mūs, Old Saxon mūs (German Low German Muus), Dutch muis, Old High German … The correct English form is mouse, spelled M-O-U-S-E.
Definition
- 1A rodent, typically having a small body, dark fur, and a long tail.
- 2Any small rodent of the genus Mus.
- 3A quiet or shy person.
- 4An input device that is moved over a pad or other flat surface to produce a corresponding movement of a pointer on a graphical display.
- 5A pointer.
- 6A facial hematoma or black eye.
- 7A turn or lashing of spun yarn or small stuff, or a metallic clasp or fastening, uniting the point and shank of a hook to prevent its unhooking or straightening out.
- 8A familiar term of endearment.
- 9A match used in firing guns or blasting.
- 10A small model of (a fragment of) Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory with desirable properties (depending on the context).
- 11A small cushion for a woman's hair.
- 12Part of a hind leg of beef, next to the round.
Etymology
From Middle English mous, from Old English mūs, from Proto-West Germanic *mūs, from Proto-Germanic *mūs, from Proto-Indo-European *múHs. Cognates Germanic cognates include Old Frisian mūs, Old Saxon mūs (German Low German Muus), Dutch muis, Old High German mūs (German Maus), Old Norse mús (Swedish mus, Danish mus, Norwegian mus, Icelandic mús, Faroese mús). Indo-European cognates include Ancient Greek μῦς (mûs), Latin mūs, Spanish mur, Armenian մուկ (muk), Old Church Slavonic мꙑшь (myšĭ) (Russian мышь (myšʹ)), Albanian mi, Persian موش (muš), Northern Kurdish mişk, Sanskrit मूष् (mūṣ). The computing sense was coined by American engineer Bill English in 1965 and first used publicly in a publication titled "Computer-Aided Display Control", in reference to the similarity with the animal.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: mmouse,mosue,moues,muose,omuse
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of mouse - 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 "mouse"?
What does "mouse" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "mouse"?
How do you pronounce "mouse"?
What is the origin of the word "mouse"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “mouse”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-O-U-S-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /maʊs/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “must” - see the side-by-side comparison. mouse vs must
- 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.