split
/splɪt/verb, adjective, noun
split is spelled S-P-L-I-T. The wrong spelling people search most is splitted: about 140 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 61 of all searches for the word. Split is a verb meaning “To divide fully or partly along a more or less straight line”.
How many letters and syllables are in split?
| Letters | 5: S-P-L-I-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 45 times per million words; the 2,253rd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, splitted, about 140 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 split?
Split is spelled S-P-L-I-T. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 61 of the searches for split 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 split?
Split appears 45 times per million words in written English, the 2,253rd 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 split?
- /splɪt/
Split has one syllable (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: En-us-split.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Back_ache-split.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with split?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as split.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: spilt.
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 split
- splits present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- splitting participle, present
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does split mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To divide fully or partly along a more or less straight line.
He has split his lip.
- 2
Of something solid, particularly wood, to break along the grain fully or partly along a more or less straight line.
- 3
To share; to divide.
We split the money among three people.
- 4
slangTo leave.
Let's split this scene and see if we can find a real party.
- 5
To separate.
Did you hear Dick and Jane split? They'll probably get a divorce.
- 6
To (cause to) break up; to throw into discord.
Accusations of bribery split the party just before the election.
- 7
To factor into linear factors.
- 8
To be expressable as a direct sum of sub-modules, -algebras, etc.
adjective
- 1
Divided.
Republicans appear split on the centerpiece of Mr. Obama's economic recovery plan.
- 2
Having the middle object (group, module, etc.) equal to the direct sum of the others.
- 3
Comprising half decaffeinated and half caffeinated espresso.
- 4
Divided so as to be done or executed part at one time or price and part at another time or price.
- 5
Given in sixteenths rather than eighths.
10+³⁄₁₆ is a split quotation.
- 6
Designating ordinary stock that has been divided into preferred ordinary and deferred ordinary.
noun
- 1
A crack or longitudinal fissure.
- 2
A breach or separation, as in a political party; a division.
- 3
A piece that is split off, or made thin, by splitting; a splinter; a fragment.
- 4
One of the sections of a skin made by dividing it into two or more thicknesses.
- 5
A maneuver of spreading or sliding the feet apart until the legs are flat on the floor 180 degrees apart, either sideways to the body or with one leg in front and one behind, thus lowering the body completely to the floor in an upright position.
- 6
A workout routine as seen by its distribution of muscle groups or the extent and manner they are targeted in a microcycle.
- 7
slangA split-finger fastball.
He’s got a nasty split.
- 8
A result of a first throw that leaves two or more pins standing with one or more pins between them knocked down.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Split in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | fendre, diviser, scinder , casser, couper, rompre |
| German | spalten , sich spalten , verteilen, aufteilen , abhauen , sich trennen |
| Portuguese | partir, dividir, cindir , repartir , cair fora , fenda |
| Spanish | partir, escindir, hender, hendir , repartir , partido |
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 split come from?
Attested since about 1567, from Middle Dutch splitten (“to split”) and/or Middle Low German splitten (“to split”), both ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *splittjan, an intensive form of Proto-West Germanic *splītan (“to split”), from Proto-Germanic *splītaną (whence Danish splitte, Low German splieten, German spleißen), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pley- (“to split, splice”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).