melonsvsmeltonTell them apart

Which to use

“melons” and “melton” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#32,497
“melons” frequency rank
#32,498
“melton” frequency rank
64995
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature melons melton
Definition plural of melon A tough, short-napped material used for making overcoats.

Where the eye mixes melons and melton

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. melons (CVCVCC) and melton (CVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
melons
6 ch
melton

Visual trap between melons and melton

A purely visual mix-up. melons (/ˈmɛlənz/) and melton (/ˈmɛlt(ə)n/) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64995, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

melons is recorded at frequency rank #32,497, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɛlənz/. melton is at rank #32,498, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɛlt(ə)n/.

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 64995, this pair ranks #74,940 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of melons vs melton

Shared letters: elmno. Private to "melons": s. Private to "melton": t.

"melons" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "melton" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • melons ← emlons · mellons · melnos · melonns · melonss · melosn · meolns · mleons
  • melton ← emlton · mellton · melotn · meltno · meltonn · meltton · metlon · mleton

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "melons" for "melton" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈmɛlənz/ versus /ˈmɛlt(ə)n/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "melons" or "melton" show up more?
"melons" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,497 in our English list, against #32,498 for "melton". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "melons" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "melton" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #74,940 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "melons" and "melton" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Mello vs melton". 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 #74,940 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