wight
/waɪt/noun
wight is spelled W-I-G-H-T: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 1.7 times per million words in written English, the 21,516th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, wight means “A supernatural being, often used in compounds such as the land-vættr which guard the land, especially the four guardians of Iceland” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of wight is wights.
How many letters and syllables are in wight?
| Letters | 5: W-I-G-H-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.7 times per million words; the 21,516th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Sounds like |
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).
How common is wight?
Wight appears 1.7 times per million words in written English, the 21,516th 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 wight?
- /waɪt/
Wight 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-white.ogg, En-uk-white.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Exilexi-white.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with wight
Sounds like: white, wite (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of wight
- wights plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does wight mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
archaicA living creature, especially a human being.
The man that hath no love of chess/Is truth to say a sorry wight.
- 2
A supernatural being, often used in compounds such as the land-vættr which guard the land, especially the four guardians of Iceland.
- 3
A ghost, deity or other supernatural entity.
- 4
A wraith-like creature.
adjective
- 1
archaicBrave, valorous, strong.
- 2
UKobsoleteStrong; stout; active.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Wight in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense a living creature, a human being:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| Portuguese | ente |
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 wight come from?
From Middle English wight, wiȝt, from Old English wiht (“thing, creature”), from Proto-West Germanic *wihti, from Proto-Germanic *wihtiz (“thing, creature”, literally “being”), from Proto-Indo-European *wekti- (“cause, sake, thing”), from *wekʷ- (“to say, tell”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).