ninth
/naɪnθ/
"ninth" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ninth” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #6,387 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #6,387
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 18
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The ordinal form of the number nine.
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 | ninth |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /naɪnθ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #6,387 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 18 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ninth” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for ninth is 5 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /naɪnθ/. Corpus data places it at rank #6,387 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "The ordinal form of the number nine.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for ninth, with forms such as "innth", "ninht", and "ninnth". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 18 confusable-pair relationships, "nit", "nth", "nite", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English nynthe, nynte, from Old English niġoþa, from Proto-Germanic *newundô; the -n- was reinserted by analogy with nine. Equivalent to nine + -th (ordinal suffix). The correct English form is ninth, spelled N-I-N-T-H.
Definition
- 1The ordinal form of the number nine.
Etymology
From Middle English nynthe, nynte, from Old English niġoþa, from Proto-Germanic *newundô; the -n- was reinserted by analogy with nine. Equivalent to nine + -th (ordinal suffix).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: innth,ninht,ninnth,ninthh,nintth,nitnh,nninth,nnith
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of ninth - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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
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Using “ninth”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is N-I-N-T-H - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /naɪnθ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “nit” - see the side-by-side comparison. ninth vs nit
- 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.