mattress
/ˈmætɹɪs/noun, verb
mattress is spelled M-A-T-T-R-E-S-S. The wrong spelling people search most is matress: about 5,730 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 10 of all searches for the word. Mattress is a noun meaning “A pad on which a person can recline and sleep, usually having an inner section of coiled springs covered with…”. The plural of mattress is mattresses.
How many letters and syllables are in mattress?
| Letters | 8: M-A-T-T-R-E-S-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 4.7 times per million words; the 11,685th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, matress, about 5,730 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
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).
How do you spell mattress?
Mattress is spelled M-A-T-T-R-E-S-S. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 10 of the searches for mattress in either form.
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). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is mattress?
Mattress appears 4.7 times per million words in written English, the 11,685th 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 mattress?
- /ˈmætɹɪs/
Mattress 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-mattress.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of mattress
- mattresses plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- mattressing participle, present
- mattressed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does mattress mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A pad on which a person can recline and sleep, usually having an inner section of coiled springs covered with foam or other cushioning material then enclosed with cloth fabric.
- 2
A form of retaining wall used to support foundations or an embankment
- 3
A form of lagging, in particular for boilers.
verb
- 1
To cover with a thick layer, like a mattress; to blanket.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Mattress in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense a pad on which a person can recline and sleep:
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 mattress come from?
From Middle English materas, from Old French matras, from Arabic مَطْرَح (maṭraḥ, “place where something is thrown”), from طَرَحَ (ṭaraḥa, “to throw”). Compare divan, from Persian via Turkish (both of Middle Eastern origin, due to the local custom of lying on padding on floor being foreign to Europeans).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).