varmint
/ˈvɑɹmɪnt/noun
varmint is spelled V-A-R-M-I-N-T. The wrong spelling people search most is varmit: about 340 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 3 in 10 of all searches for the word. Varmint is a noun meaning “A pestilent or predatory ground-borne animal, especially one that kills or harasses a farmer's animals or…”. The plural of varmint is varmints.
How many letters and syllables are in varmint?
| Letters | 7: V-A-R-M-I-N-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 7 million words; the 79,518th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, varmit, about 340 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
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).
How do you spell varmint?
Varmint is spelled V-A-R-M-I-N-T. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 3 in 10 of the searches for varmint 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 varmint?
Varmint appears about once in every 7 million words in written English, the 79,518th 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 varmint?
- UK /ˈvɑːmɪnt/
- US /ˈvɑɹmɪnt/
Varmint has 2 syllables (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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-varmint.wav, En-us-varmint.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of varmint
- varmints plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does varmint mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A pestilent or predatory ground-borne animal, especially one that kills or harasses a farmer's animals or crops.
- 2
An obnoxious person or troublemaker.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Varmint in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
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 varmint come from?
Dialectal form of vermin, derived from Latin vermis (“worm”), c. 1530–1540s. Perhaps influenced by Latin vargus (“bandit, outlaw, scoundrel”), though the pronunciation in /ɑː(ɹ)/ is more likely due to the same lowering of /ɛr/ > /ar/ found in carve < Middle English kerven and starve < Middle English sterven. The final syllable is probably altered after -ment; compare parchment < Middle English parchemyn.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).