# twitch

> English word · Noun · IPA /twɪt͡ʃ/ · frequency rank #10,303

## Definitions
1. A brief, small (sometimes involuntary) movement out of place and then back again; a spasm.
2. Action of spotting or seeking out a bird, especially a rare one.
3. A stick with a hole in one end through which passes a loop, which can be drawn tightly over the upper lip or an ear of a horse and twisted to keep the animal quiet during minor surgery.
4. A brief, contractile response of a skeletal muscle elicited by a single maximal volley of impulses in the neurons supplying it.
5. The sudden narrowing almost to nothing of a vein of ore.
6. A trip taken in order to observe a rare bird.

## Etymology
From Middle English twicchen, from Old English *twiċċan, from Proto-West Germanic *twikkijan (“to nail, pin, fasten, clasp, pinch”).
Cognate with English tweak, Low German twikken, German Low German twicken (“to pinch, pinch off”), zweckōn and gizwickan (> German zwicken (“to pinch”)).

## Easily confused with
- **twitchy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/twitch-vs-twitchy)
- **twit** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/twit-vs-twitch)
- **twice** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/twice-vs-twitch)
- **thatch** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/thatch-vs-twitch)

## Common misspellings (10)
`tiwtch`, `ttwitch`, `twicth`, `twitcch`, `twitchh`, `twithc`, `twittch`, `twtich`, `twwitch`, `wtitch`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/twitch