melavsmeldWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: mela is a noun, meld is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mela” is a noun and “meld” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#49,487
“mela” frequency rank
#40,795
“meld” frequency rank
90282
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mela meld
Definition A Hindu religious festival. To combine (multiple things) together; to blend, to fuse.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set mela and meld apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
mela
4 ch
meld

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mela is anoun and meldaverb. On the page they differ by a single letter - a in “mela” becomes d in “meld”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 90282, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mela is recorded at frequency rank #49,487, classified as anoun. meld is at rank #40,795, tagged as averb, pronounced /mɛld/.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 90282, this pair ranks #4,341 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mela vs meld

Shared letters: elm. Private to "mela": a. Private to "meld": d.

"mela" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "meld" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • melaemla · mella · mlea · mmela
  • meldemld · medl · meldd · melld · mled · mmeld

Frequency comparison

mela#49,487
meld#40,795

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mela" and "meld" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mela" is a noun and "meld" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "mela" or "meld"?
"meld" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #40,795 in our English list, against #49,487 for "mela". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering mela vs meld

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “mela”; for a verb, it's “meld”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “mela” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list