outwit
/aʊtˈwɪt/
"outwit" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“outwit” is uncommon English (frequency #54,369 among 1,431 “O” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #54,369
- frequency rank, English
- 1,431
- “O” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To get the better of; to outsmart, to beat in a competition of wits.
Corpus desk
Index EN-outwit · outwit · English
outwit · rank #54,369 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #54,369
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,431
- PHOTO-FINISH ordain
Nearest frequency peer: ordain (-2 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Long-tail ranks near “outwit”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- oppositional
oppositional
45,636 corpus weight
- ordain
ordain
45,634 corpus weight
- outwit
outwit
45,632 corpus weight
- oxidant
oxidant
45,630 corpus weight
- oxygenation
oxygenation
45,629 corpus weight
- padang
padang
45,628 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “outwit” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | outwit |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /aʊtˈwɪt/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #54,369 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “outwit” in English
Rare enough to double-check
outwit is uncommon English at frequency #54,369 among 1,431 “O” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed /aʊtˈwɪt/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To get the better of; to outsmart, to beat in a competition of wits.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for outwit in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From out- + wit. The correct English form is outwit, spelled O-U-T-W-I-T.
Definition
- 1To get the better of; to outsmart, to beat in a competition of wits.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how outwit appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
But my dear Lady Teazle 'tis your own fault if you suffer it—when a Husband entertains a groundless suspicion of his Wife and withdraws his confidence from her—the original compact is broke and she owes it to the Honour of her sex to endeavour to outwit him—
Etymology
From out- + wit.
This word in other languages
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "outwit", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).