Which to use
“meld” and “melted” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #40,795
- “meld” frequency rank
- #9,917
- “melted” frequency rank
- 50712
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | meld | melted |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To combine (multiple things) together; to blend, to fuse. | simple past and past participle of melt |
Where the eye mixes meld and melted
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. meld runs 4 letters (CVCC) against melted's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between meld and melted
A purely visual mix-up. meld (/mɛld/) and melted (/ˈmɛltɪd/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50712, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
meld is recorded at frequency rank #40,795, classified as averb, pronounced /mɛld/. melted is at rank #9,917, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈmɛltɪd/.
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 50712, this pair ranks #171,848 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of meld vs melted
Shared letters: delm. Private to "meld": -. Private to "melted": t.
"meld" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "melted" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "meld" and "melted" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "meld" or "melted"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "meld" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "melted" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #171,848 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "meld" and "melted" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mela vs meld". 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 #171,848 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.