mite

\mit\

/\mit\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“mite” is uncommon French (frequency #58,763 among 5,038 “M” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#58,763
frequency rank, French
5,038
“M” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Nom vernaculaire d’insecte ravageur de l’ordre des lépidoptères (papillons) regroupant les teignes (ex: mites des vêtements) et les pyrales ou mites alimentaires.

Corpus desk

Index FR-mite · mite · French

mite · rank #58,763 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #58,763
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,038
  • PHOTO-FINISH mirepoix

Nearest frequency peer: mirepoix (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Rangs de longue queue près de « mite »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « mite » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for mite
PropertyValue
Headwordmite
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\mit\
Letters4
Frequency rank#58,763
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « mite » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.mitetombe dans cette queue de rareté:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « mirepoix » (#58,762), « modifiable » (#58,764), « Mojave » (#58,765). Parmi 5,038 lemmes en « M », « mite » est au #58,763. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

mite is uncommon French at frequency #58,763 among 5,038 “M” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \mit\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for mite, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is mite, spelled M-I-T-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Nom vernaculaire d’insecte ravageur de l’ordre des lépidoptères (papillons) regroupant les teignes (ex: mites des vêtements) et les pyrales ou mites alimentaires.
  2. 2
    Nom vulgaire donné à une espèce d’acarien de la classe des arachnides que l’on retrouve sur certaines denrées alimentaires.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how mite appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Comme on dit à Combray, il n’y a pas de fourreurs qui s’y connaissent aussi bien comme les mites. Elles se mettent toujours dans les meilleures étoffes.
  2. Les larves de mites, qui s’attaquent aux vêtements en laine, vivent également dans les nids d’oiseaux et de mammifères.

This word in other languages

moth(English)polilla(Español)Motte(Deutsch)

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 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "mite"?
"mite" is spelled M-I-T-E. The IPA pronunciation is \mit\.
What does "mite" mean?
As a noun, "mite" means: Nom vernaculaire d’insecte ravageur de l’ordre des lépidoptères (papillons) regroupant les teignes (ex: mites des vêtements) et les pyrales ou mites alimentaires.
How do you pronounce "mite"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "mite" is \mit\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "mite" come from?
"mite" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "mite", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

molo#58,766MHSC#58,756mags#58,740neto#58,786

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list