mantle
/ˈmæn.təl/noun, verb
mantle is spelled M-A-N-T-L-E: 6 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 4.2 times per million words in written English, the 12,578th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “mantel vs mantle” about 5,400 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, mantle means “A piece of clothing somewhat like an open robe or cloak, especially that worn by Orthodox bishops” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of mantle is mantles.
How many letters and syllables are in mantle?
| Letters | 6: M-A-N-T-L-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 4.2 times per million words; the 12,578th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| 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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is mantle?
Mantle appears 4.2 times per million words in written English, the 12,578th 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 mantle?
- /ˈmæn.təl/
Mantle 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-mantle.ogg, En-au-mantle.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with mantle
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: mantel (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with mantle?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as mantle.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: mental, lament, mantel, manlet.
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 mantle
- mantles plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- mantling participle, present
- mantled participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does mantle mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A piece of clothing somewhat like an open robe or cloak, especially that worn by Orthodox bishops.
- 2
A figurative garment representing authority or status, capable of affording protection.
At the meeting, she finally assumed the mantle of leadership of the party.
- 3
Anything that covers or conceals something else; a cloak.
- 4
The body wall of a mollusc, from which the shell is secreted.
He grasps the female from slightly below about the mid-mantle region and positions himself so his arms are close to the opening of her mantle.
- 5
The back of a bird together with the folded wings.
- 6
The zone of hot gases around a flame.
- 7
A gauzy fabric impregnated with metal nitrates, used in some kinds of gas and oil lamps and lanterns, which forms a rigid but fragile mesh of metal oxides when heated during initial use and then produces white light from the heat of the flame below it. (So called because it is hung above the lamp's flame like a mantel.)
- 8
The outer wall and casing of a blast furnace, above the hearth.
verb
- 1
To cover or conceal (something); to cloak; to disguise.
- 2
To become covered or concealed.
- 3
To spread like a mantle (especially of blood in the face and cheeks when a person flushes).
- 4
To climb over or onto something.
- 5
The action of stretching out the wings to hide food.
- 6
The action of stretching a wing and the same side leg out to one side of the body.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Mantle in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | manteau , les rênes , manchon |
| German | Umhang, Mantel , Hülle, Umhüllung |
| Portuguese | manto |
| Spanish | manto, pendil, manteo , camisa |
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 mantle come from?
From Middle English mantel, from Old English mæntel, mentel (“sleeveless cloak”), from Proto-West Germanic *mantel; later reinforced by Anglo-Norman mantel, both from Latin mantellum (“covering, cloak”) (French manteau), diminutive of mantum (Spanish manto), probably from Gaulish *mantos, *mantalos (“trodden road”), from Proto-Celtic *mantos, *mantlos, from Proto-Indo-European *menH- (“tread, press together; crumble”). Compare Icelandic möttull. Doublet of manteau.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).