mast
/mɑːst/
"mast" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“mast” has 5 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #14,584. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #14,584
- frequency rank, English
- 4,057
- “M” headwords
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A tall, slim post or tower, usually tapering upward, used to support, for example, sails or observation platforms on a ship, the main rotor of a helicopter, flags, floodlights, meteorological instr...
Corpus desk
Index EN-mast · mast · English
mast · rank #14,584 · 5 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #14,584
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 5 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,057
- PHOTO-FINISH mandarin
Nearest frequency peer: mandarin (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “mast”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- listener
listener
85,420 corpus weight
- lockdown
lockdown
85,419 corpus weight
- mandarin
mandarin
85,418 corpus weight
- mast
mast
85,417 corpus weight
- matte
matte
85,416 corpus weight
- McCartney
McCartney
85,415 corpus weight
What this shows “mast” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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 | mast |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /mɑːst/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #14,584 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “mast”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 5 spelling variants around mast (IPA /mɑːst/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #14,584 among 4,057 “M” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for mast, with forms such as "amst", "masst", and "mastt". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "MS", "MT", "may", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English mast, from Old English mæst (“mast”), from Proto-West Germanic *mast, from Proto-Germanic *mastaz (“mast, sail-pole”), from Proto-Indo-European *mazdos (“pole, mast”). Cognate with Dutch mast, German Mast, and via Indo-European with Lati… The correct English form is mast, spelled M-A-S-T.
Definition
- 1A tall, slim post or tower, usually tapering upward, used to support, for example, sails or observation platforms on a ship, the main rotor of a helicopter, flags, floodlights, meteorological instruments, or communications equipment, such as an aerial, usually supported by guy-wires (except in the case of a helicopter).
- 2A non-judicial punishment ("NJP"); a disciplinary hearing under which a commanding officer studies and disposes of cases involving those under his command.
Etymology
From Middle English mast, from Old English mæst (“mast”), from Proto-West Germanic *mast, from Proto-Germanic *mastaz (“mast, sail-pole”), from Proto-Indo-European *mazdos (“pole, mast”). Cognate with Dutch mast, German Mast, and via Indo-European with Latin mālus, Russian мост (most, “bridge”), Irish adhmad.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- amst
- masst
- mastt
- mmast
- msat
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of mast - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "mast", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (5 here; floor ≥5).