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maiden

/ˈmeɪdən/noun, adjective

maiden is spelled M-A-I-D-E-N: 6 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 6.6 times per million words in written English, the 9,313th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, maiden means “A girl or an unmarried young woman” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of maiden is maidens.

How many letters and syllables are in maiden?

Letters6: M-A-I-D-E-N
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing6.6 times per million words; the 9,313th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is maiden?

Maiden appears 6.6 times per million words in written English, the 9,313th most frequent word form in the list.

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

How do you pronounce maiden?

  • US /ˈmeɪdən/
  • Australia /ˈmæɪdən/
  • /ˈmedən/

Maiden has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-maiden.ogg, En-au-maiden.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with maiden?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as maiden (/eɪdən/).

Spelled with the same letters in another order: median, medina, demain.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of maiden

  • maidens plural

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

What does maiden mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    A girl or an unmarried young woman.

  2. 2

    archaicA female virgin.

    She's unmarried and still a maiden.

  3. 3

    obsoleteA man with no experience of sex, especially because of deliberate abstention.

  4. 4

    A maidservant.

  5. 5

    A clothes maiden.

  6. 6

    archaicAn unmarried woman, especially an older woman.

  7. 7

    A racehorse without any victory, i.e. one having a "virgin record".

  8. 8

    A horse race in which all starters are maidens.

adjective

  1. 1

    Virgin.

  2. 2

    Without offspring.

  3. 3

    Like or befitting a (young, unmarried) maiden.

  4. 4

    Being a first occurrence or event.

  5. 5

    Being an over in which no runs are scored.

    He bowled a record twelve maiden overs in his spell of 8-33 in 21 overs.

  6. 6

    Fresh; innocent; unpolluted; pure; hitherto unused.

  7. 7

    Never having been captured or violated.

  8. 8

    Grown from seed and never pruned.

noun

as Maiden
  1. 1

    One of the triune goddesses of the Lady in Wicca alongside the Crone and Mother representing a girl or a young woman

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

Maiden in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchjeune fille, jeune femme, demoiselle, pucelle (unmarried young female), vierge (female virgin), inaugural (describing a first occurrence or event)
GermanJungfrau, Mädchen, Maid (unmarried young female)
Portuguesedonzela, senhorita (unmarried young female), virgem (female virgin), primeiro, inaugural (describing a first occurrence or event)
Spanishdoncella, señorita (unmarried young female), primerizo (describing a first occurrence or event)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does maiden come from?

From Middle English mayden, meiden, from Old English mæġden (“girl”), originally a diminutive of mæġeþ (“girl”) via diminutive suffix -en, from Proto-West Germanic *magaþ, from Proto-Germanic *magaþs. Equivalent to maid + -en.

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

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