mayhem
/ˈmeɪ̯ˌhɛm/
"mayhem" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“mayhem” has 9 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #16,074. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #16,074
- frequency rank, English
- 4,057
- “M” headwords
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 7
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A state or situation of great confusion, disorder, trouble or destruction; chaos.
Corpus desk
Index EN-mayhem · mayhem · English
mayhem · rank #16,074 · 9 variants · 7 confusables
- FREQ-MID #16,074
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 7 pairs
- VAR-MID 9 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,057
- PHOTO-FINISH marquis
Nearest frequency peer: marquis (-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 “mayhem”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- mains
mains
83,931 corpus weight
- mara
mara
83,929 corpus weight
- marquis
marquis
83,928 corpus weight
- mayhem
mayhem
83,927 corpus weight
- mens
mens
83,926 corpus weight
- mistakenly
mistakenly
83,924 corpus weight
What this shows “mayhem” 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 | mayhem |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈmeɪ̯ˌhɛm/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #16,074 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 7 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “mayhem”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 9 spelling variants around mayhem (IPA /ˈmeɪ̯ˌhɛm/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #16,074 among 4,057 “M” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for mayhem, with forms such as "amyhem", "mahyem", and "mayehm". 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 7 confusable-pair relationships, "mayne", "Mayhew", "maybe", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English mayme, mahaime, from Anglo-Norman mahaim (“mutilation”), from Old French meshaing (“bodily harm, loss of limb”), from Proto-Germanic *maidijaną (“to cripple, injure”) (compare Middle High German meidem, meiden (“gelding”), Old Norse meið… The correct English form is mayhem, spelled M-A-Y-H-E-M.
Definition
- 1A state or situation of great confusion, disorder, trouble or destruction; chaos.
- 2Infliction of violent injury on a person or thing.
- 3The maiming of a person by depriving them of the use of any of their limbs which are necessary for defense or protection.
- 4The crime of damaging things or harming people on purpose.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how mayhem appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
to cause mayhem
What if the legendary hero Robin Hood had been born into the mayhem of the 20th century?
Etymology
From Middle English mayme, mahaime, from Anglo-Norman mahaim (“mutilation”), from Old French meshaing (“bodily harm, loss of limb”), from Proto-Germanic *maidijaną (“to cripple, injure”) (compare Middle High German meidem, meiden (“gelding”), Old Norse meiða (“to injure”), Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌳𐌾𐌰𐌽 (maidjan, “to alter, falsify”)), from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“to change”). More at mad. The original meaning referred to the crime of maiming; the other senses derived from this. Another possible etymology derives the Old French from Provençal maganhar, composed of mal (“evil”) and ganhar (“to obtain, receive”) (compare with Spanish ganar and Italian gavagnare and guadagnare), so literally "to obtain, receive something evil". The sense "chaos" may have arisen by popular misunderstanding of the common journalese expression "rioting and mayhem".
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- amyhem
- mahyem
- mayehm
- mayhemm
- mayhhem
- mayhme
- mayyhem
- mmayhem
- myahem
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of mayhem - 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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "mayhem", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (9 here; floor ≥5).