mutilate
/ˈmjuː.tɪˌleɪt/verb, noun
mutilate is spelled M-U-T-I-L-A-T-E. The wrong spelling people search most is mutiliate: about 10 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 31 of all searches for the word. Mutilate is a verb meaning “To physically harm as to impair use, notably by cutting off or otherwise disabling a vital part, such as a…”.
How many letters and syllables are in mutilate?
| Letters | 8: M-U-T-I-L-A-T-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 4 million words; the 56,108th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, mutiliate, about 10 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell mutilate?
Mutilate is spelled M-U-T-I-L-A-T-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 31 of the searches for mutilate in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is mutilate?
Mutilate appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 56,108th 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 mutilate?
- /ˈmjuː.tɪˌleɪt/
As an adjective (“Deprived of, or having lost, an important part; mutilated”): /ˈmjuː.tɪˌleɪt/, /ˈmjuː.tɪ.lət/, /ˈmjuː.tɪ.lɪt/.
Mutilate has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-mutilate.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-mutilate2.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with mutilate?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as mutilate.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: ultimate.
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 mutilate
- mutilates present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- mutilating participle, present
- mutilated participle, past
- mut.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does mutilate mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To physically harm as to impair use, notably by cutting off or otherwise disabling a vital part, such as a limb.
mutilated currency
- 2
To destroy beyond recognition.
- 3
To render imperfect or defective.
noun
- 1
Something that has been mutilated.
adjective
- 1
obsoleteDeprived of, or having lost, an important part; mutilated.
- 2
archaicHaving fin-like appendages or flukes instead of legs, like a cetacean does.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate mutilate?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of mutilate: mut..
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Mutilate in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense To physically harm as to impair use:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | mutiler |
| German | verstümmeln, verschandeln |
| Portuguese | mutilar |
| Spanish | mutilar |
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 mutilate come from?
Learned borrowing from Latin mutilātus, the perfect passive participle of mutilō (“to mutilate”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), itself from mutilus (“maimed”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).