unwitting
"unwitting" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“unwitting” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #44,551 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #44,551
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 4
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Unaware or uninformed; oblivious.
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 | unwitting |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #44,551 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 4 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “unwitting” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for unwitting is 9 letters long, classified as an adjective. Corpus data places it at rank #44,551 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for unwitting, with forms such as "nuwitting", "uniwtting", and "unnwitting". 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 4 confusable-pair relationships, "unwittingly", "uniting", "unwilling", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English unwittinge, unwitand, from Old English unwitende (“unwitting; not knowing; unaware; unconscious”), from Proto-Germanic *unwitandz (“not knowing”), equivalent to un- + witting. Cognate with West Frisian ûnwittend, Dutch onwetend, German L… The correct English form is unwitting, spelled U-N-W-I-T-T-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1Unaware or uninformed; oblivious.
- 2Unintentional.
Etymology
From Middle English unwittinge, unwitand, from Old English unwitende (“unwitting; not knowing; unaware; unconscious”), from Proto-Germanic *unwitandz (“not knowing”), equivalent to un- + witting. Cognate with West Frisian ûnwittend, Dutch onwetend, German Low German unwetend, German unwissend and unwissentlich, Icelandic óvitandi.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: nuwitting,uniwtting,unnwitting,unwiting,unwititng,unwittign,unwittingg,unwittinng,unwittnig,unwtiting,unwwitting,uwnitting
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of unwitting - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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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What does "unwitting" mean?
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Using “unwitting”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is U-N-W-I-T-T-I-N-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “unwittingly” - see the side-by-side comparison. unwitting vs unwittingly
- 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.