fettle

fet·tle/ˈfɛtl̩/noun, verb

fettle is spelled F-E-T-T-L-E: 6 letters and 2 syllables (fet·tle). It appears about once in every 10 million words in written English, the 97,057th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, fettle means “A state of physical condition; kilter or trim” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of fettle is fettles.

How many letters and syllables are in fettle?

Letters	6: F-E-T-T-L-E
Syllables	2: fet·tle
In writing	about once in every 10 million words; the 97,057th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched	none measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is fettle?

Fettle appears about once in every 10 million words in written English, the 97,057th most frequent word form in the list.

fettle0.0010.010.11101001,00010,000

rarerper million words of written Englishmore common

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce fettle?

/ˈfɛtl̩/

Fettle has 2 syllables, split fet·tle in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-fettle.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Naomi_Persephone_Amethyst_(NaomiAmethyst)-fettle.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of fettle

fettles plural, present, singular, he/she/it
fettling participle, present
fettled participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does fettle mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

1
A state of physical condition; kilter or trim.
2
One's mental state; spirits.
3
Sand used to line a furnace.
4
A seam line left by the meeting of mould pieces.
5
UKThe act of fettling.
6
A person's mood or state, often assuming the worst.
What’s yer fettle marra?

verb

1
To sort out, to fix, to mend, to repair.
2
To make preparations; to put things in order; to do trifling business.
3
To line the hearth of a furnace with sand prior to pouring molten metal.
4
To be upset or in a bad mood.
Divint fettle yersel ower that!
5
To remove (as by sanding) the seam lines left by the meeting of two molds.
6
To machine away seam lines or more generally to make small adjustments to a component or machine to improve its fit or operation.
He wants to fettle his gearchange mechanism before the next competition.
7
archaicTo prepare.