mite
French, noun
mite is spelled M-I-T-E (4 letters) and appears about once in every 3 million words in written French, the 58,502nd most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Mite is a French feminine noun meaning “mite (arachnid)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive of miter. With an accent, mité is a different word: “past participle of miter”. The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Nom vernaculaire d’insecte ravageur de l’ordre des lépidoptères (papillons) regroupant les teignes (ex: mites…”.
What does mite mean in English?
noun
- 1
femininemite (arachnid)
- 2
femininemoth, particularly one whose larva destroys something stored by humans
verb
- 1
first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
- 2
second-person singular imperative
verb
- 1
past participle of miter
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 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. Nom vulgaire donné à une espèce d’acarien de la classe des arachnides que l’on retrouve sur certaines denrées alimentaires.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of mite
- mites plural
- mitée feminine
- mités masculine plural
- mitées feminine plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to mite
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is mite in French?
mite appears about once in every 3 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).