mantle
/ˈmæn.təl/
"mantle" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“mantle” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #12,637 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #12,637
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A piece of clothing somewhat like an open robe or cloak, especially that worn by Orthodox bishops.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | mantle |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈmæn.təl/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #12,637 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “mantle” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for mantle is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈmæn.təl/. Corpus data places it at rank #12,637 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 14 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for mantle, with forms such as "amntle", "manlte", and "manntle". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "mate", "maple", "monte", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: 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)… The correct English form is mantle, spelled M-A-N-T-L-E.
Definition
- 1A piece of clothing somewhat like an open robe or cloak, especially that worn by Orthodox bishops.
- 2A figurative garment representing authority or status, capable of affording protection.
- 3Anything that covers or conceals something else; a cloak.
- 4The body wall of a mollusc, from which the shell is secreted.
- 5The back of a bird together with the folded wings.
- 6The zone of hot gases around a flame.
- 7A 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.)
- 8The outer wall and casing of a blast furnace, above the hearth.
- 9A penstock for a water wheel.
- 10The cerebral cortex.
- 11The layer between Earth's core and crust.
- 12Any similar layer in an exoplanet.
- 13Alternative spelling of mantel (“shelf above fireplace”).
- 14A mantling.
Etymology
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.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: amntle,manlte,manntle,mantlle,manttle,matnle,mmantle,mnatle
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of mantle - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “mantle”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-A-N-T-L-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈmæn.təl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “mate” - see the side-by-side comparison. mantle vs mate
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.