wanted
/ˈwɑn.tɪd/adjective, verb
wanted is spelled W-A-N-T-E-D. The wrong spelling people search most is wnated: about 10 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 217 of all searches for the word. Wanted is an adjective meaning “Wished for; desired; sought”.
How many letters and syllables are in wanted?
| Letters | 6: W-A-N-T-E-D |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 229 times per million words; the 437th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, wnated, about 10 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with |
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 wanted?
Wanted is spelled W-A-N-T-E-D. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 219 of the searches for wanted 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 wanted?
Wanted appears 229 times per million words in written English, the 437th 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 wanted?
- UK /ˈwɒn.tɪd/
- US /ˈwɑn.tɪd/
- US /ˈwɑ.nɪd/
Wanted 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: En-gb-wanted.ogg, En-us-wanted.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with wanted?
One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as wanted from its last stressed vowel (/ɑntɪd/):
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 wanted
- more wanted comparative
- most wanted superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does wanted mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Wished for; desired; sought.
Wanted: babysitter
- 2
Subject to immediate detainment by law enforcement authorities on sight.
America’s most wanted
verb
- 1
simple past and past participle of want
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate wanted?
Wiktionary records 2 abbreviations of wanted: wntd, wtd..
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Wanted in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| German | ersehnt, gewünscht, erwünscht |
| Spanish | deseado , buscado |
| French | recherché |
| Portuguese | procurado |
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 wanted come from?
From want + -ed.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).