melavsmeldConfusable pair

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.

Letter map: mela vs meld

Shared letters muted; letters that set mela and meld apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. mela (CVCV) and meld (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
mela
4 ch
meld

Grammar separator: mela vs meld

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

  • mela ← emla · mella · mlea · mmela
  • meld ← emld · medl · meldd · melld · mled · mmeld

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.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "mela" and "meld".

  • Full dictionary entry for "mela" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "meld" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #4,341 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mela" and "meld" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mela vs MPAA". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #4,341 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list