matey
"matey" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“matey” is uncommon English (frequency #53,094 among 4,057 “M” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #53,094
- frequency rank, English
- 4,057
- “M” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Sociable or friendly.
Corpus desk
Index EN-matey · matey · English
matey · rank #53,094 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #53,094
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,057
- PHOTO-FINISH mashing
Nearest frequency peer: mashing (-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.
Long-tail ranks near “matey”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Mansell
Mansell
46,913 corpus weight
- Marca
Marca
46,912 corpus weight
- mariposa
mariposa
46,910 corpus weight
- mashing
mashing
46,908 corpus weight
- matey
matey
46,907 corpus weight
- Methodism
Methodism
46,902 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “matey” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | matey |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #53,094 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “matey” in English
Rare enough to double-check
matey is uncommon English at frequency #53,094 among 4,057 “M” headwords, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Sociable or friendly.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for matey, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From mate + -y. The correct English form is matey, spelled M-A-T-E-Y.
Definition
- 1Sociable or friendly.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how matey appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
You've been very matey with that new bird.
She asked in what sort of accident I had broken my back, and when I told her that I had been shot down she became much more matey.
Etymology
From mate + -y.
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 "matey", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).