myth
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
4 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "myth", 4-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "myth" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "myth" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
myth is aEnglishnoun. It means: A traditional story which embodies a belief regarding some fact or phenomenon of experience, and in which often the forces of nature and of the soul are personified; a sacred narrative regarding a ... Pronounced /mɪθ/. It ranks #6,269 in English word frequency. Often confused with myths and mythic.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | myth |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /mɪθ/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #6,269 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for myth is 4 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /mɪθ/. Corpus data places it at rank #6,269 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for myth, with forms such as "mmyth", "mtyh", and "myht". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "myths", "mythic", "mythos", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Ancient Greek μῦθος (mûthos, “word, humour, companion, speech, account, rumour, fable”). Attested in English since 1830. Doublet of mythos. Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is myth, spelled M-Y-T-H, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A traditional story which embodies a belief regarding some fact or phenomenon of experience, and in which often the forces of nature and of the soul are personified; a sacred narrative regarding a god, a hero, the origin of the world or of a people, etc.
- 2Such stories as a genre.
- 3A commonly-held but false belief, a common misconception; a fictitious or imaginary person or thing; a popular conception about a real person or event which exaggerates or idealizes reality.
- 4A person or thing held in excessive or quasi-religious awe or admiration based on popular legend
- 5A person or thing existing only in imagination, or whose actual existence is not verifiable.
- 6An invented story, theory, or concept.
Etymology
From Ancient Greek μῦθος (mûthos, “word, humour, companion, speech, account, rumour, fable”). Attested in English since 1830. Doublet of mythos.
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: mmyth,mtyh,myht,mythh,mytth,myyth,ymth
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for myth
Misspelling Variants of "myth"
Frequency rank: #6,269 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter M in our English index: