Which to use
“melee” is a noun and “melted” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #21,859
- “melee” frequency rank
- #9,917
- “melted” frequency rank
- 31776
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | melee | melted |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A battle fought at close range, (especially) one not involving ranged weapons; hand-to-hand combat; brawling. | simple past and past participle of melt |
Where the eye mixes melee and melted
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. melee runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against melted's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses melee with melted
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: melee is /ˈmɛˌleɪ/ while melted is /ˈmɛltɪd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31776, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
melee is recorded at frequency rank #21,859, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɛˌleɪ/. 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 31776, this pair ranks #343,309 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of melee vs melted
Shared letters: elm. Private to "melee": -. Private to "melted": dt.
"melee" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "melted" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "melee" for "melted" ever safe?
Which is more common, "melee" or "melted"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "melee" and "melted" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "melee" 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 #343,309 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "melee" and "melted" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mela vs melee". 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 #343,309 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.