Which to use
“melt” and “met” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,582
- “melt” frequency rank
- #853
- “met” frequency rank
- 8435
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | melt | met |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To change (or to be changed) from a solid state to a liquid state, usually by a gradual heat. | simple past and past participle of meet |
Where the eye mixes melt and met
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses melt with met
A purely visual mix-up. melt (/mɛlt/) and met (/mɛt/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8435, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
melt is recorded at frequency rank #7,582, classified as averb, pronounced /mɛlt/. met is at rank #853, tagged as averb, pronounced /mɛt/.
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 8435, this pair ranks #502,503 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of melt vs met
Shared letters: emt. Private to "melt": l. Private to "met": -.
"melt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "met" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- melt ← emlt · mellt · meltt · metl · mlet · mmelt
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "melt" and "met" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "melt" or "met"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "melt" and "met" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "melt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "met" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #502,503 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "melt" and "met" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mela vs melt". 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 #502,503 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.