# mantle

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈmæn.təl/ · frequency rank #12,637

## Definitions
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.
3. Anything that covers or conceals something else; a cloak.
4. The body wall of a mollusc, from which the shell is secreted.
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.
9. A penstock for a water wheel.
10. The cerebral cortex.
11. The layer between Earth's core and crust.
12. Any similar layer in an exoplanet.
13. Alternative spelling of mantel (“shelf above fireplace”).
14. A 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.

## Easily confused with
- **mate** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/mantle-vs-mate)
- **maple** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/mantle-vs-maple)
- **monte** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/mantle-vs-monte)
- **matte** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/mantle-vs-matte)
- **marble** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/mantle-vs-marble)
- **mantra** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/mantle-vs-mantra)
- **myrtle** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/mantle-vs-myrtle)
- **mingle** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/mantle-vs-mingle)
- **manure** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/mantle-vs-manure)
- **Mattie** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/mantle-vs-mattie)
- **mettle** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/mantle-vs-mettle)
- **Marple** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/mantle-vs-marple)
- **male** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/male-vs-mantle)
- **mane** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/mane-vs-mantle)
- **manly** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/manly-vs-mantle)
- **manta** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/manta-vs-mantle)
- **manage** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/manage-vs-mantle)
- **Manila** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/manila-vs-mantle)
- **mantis** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/mantis-vs-mantle)
- **mantel** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/mantel-vs-mantle)

## Common misspellings (8)
`amntle`, `manlte`, `manntle`, `mantlle`, `manttle`, `matnle`, `mmantle`, `mnatle`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/mantle