Which to use
“melee” and “meter” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #21,859
- “melee” frequency rank
- #6,165
- “meter” frequency rank
- 28024
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | melee | meter |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A battle fought at close range, (especially) one not involving ranged weapons; hand-to-hand combat; brawling. | A device that measures things. |
Where the eye mixes melee and meter
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses melee with meter
A purely visual mix-up. melee (/ˈmɛˌleɪ/) and meter (/ˈmitəɹ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28024, 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/. meter is at rank #6,165, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmitəɹ/.
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 28024, this pair ranks #374,313 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of melee vs meter
Shared letters: em. Private to "melee": l. Private to "meter": rt.
"melee" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "meter" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "melee" and "meter" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "melee" or "meter"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "melee" and "meter" 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 "meter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #374,313 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "melee" and "meter" 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 #374,313 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.