mutating

adj

"mutating" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“mutating” is uncommon English (frequency #58,875 among 36,575 “M” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#58,875
frequency rank, English
36,575
“M” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Causing or tending to cause mutation.

Key facts for mutating
PropertyValue
Headwordmutating
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters8
Frequency rank#58,875
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “mutating” sits in English frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). mutating lands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

mutating is uncommon English at frequency #58,875 among 36,575 “M” headwords, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for mutating, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is mutating, spelled M-U-T-A-T-I-N-G.

Definition

  1. 1
    Causing or tending to cause mutation.
  2. 2
    Having the ability to make changes to data other than its makeup.

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 "mutating"?
"mutating" is spelled M-U-T-A-T-I-N-G.
What does "mutating" mean?
As an adjective, "mutating" means: Causing or tending to cause mutation.
What language does "mutating" come from?
"mutating" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Using “mutating”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is M-U-T-A-T-I-N-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words

Other uncommon English words near this rank

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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list