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mead

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

4 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "mead", 4-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Wiktionary, and usage frequency ranked against an open word-frequency list covering the top 100,000 English words. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "mead" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "mead" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

mead is aEnglishnoun. It means: An alcoholic drink fermented from honey and water. Pronounced /miːd/. Often confused with men and met.

Key facts for mead
PropertyValue
Headwordmead
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/miːd/
Letters4
Frequency rank#16,528
Misspellings tracked4
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of mead in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for mead is 4 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /miːd/. Corpus data places it at rank #16,528 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for mead, with forms such as "emad", "meadd", and "meda". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "men", "met", "MUD", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English mede, from Old English medu, from Proto-West Germanic *medu, from Proto-Germanic *meduz, from Proto-Indo-European *médʰu (“honey; honey wine”). Cognate with Ancient Greek μέθυ (méthu) (whence English methyl), Lithuanian medùs, Old Church… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is mead, spelled M-E-A-D, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    An alcoholic drink fermented from honey and water.
  2. 2
    A drink composed of syrup of sarsaparilla or other flavouring extract, and water, and sometimes charged with carbon dioxide.

Etymology

From Middle English mede, from Old English medu, from Proto-West Germanic *medu, from Proto-Germanic *meduz, from Proto-Indo-European *médʰu (“honey; honey wine”). Cognate with Ancient Greek μέθυ (méthu) (whence English methyl), Lithuanian medùs, Old Church Slavonic медъ (medŭ, “honey”), Persian می (mey), Sanskrit मधु (mádhu), Welsh medd, Finnish mesi, Chinese 蜜 (mì).

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: emad,meadd,meda,mmead

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for mead

Misspelling Variants of "mead"

emad4meadd5meda4mmead5
Misspelling Variants of "mead"

Frequency rank: #16,528 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "mead"?
"mead" is spelled M-E-A-D. The IPA pronunciation is /miːd/.
What does "mead" mean?
As a noun, "mead" means: An alcoholic drink fermented from honey and water.
What words are commonly confused with "mead"?
"mead" is commonly confused with "men", "met", "MUD". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "mead"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "mead" is /miːd/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "mead"?
From Middle English mede, from Old English medu, from Proto-West Germanic *medu, from Proto-Germanic *meduz, from Proto-Indo-European *médʰu (“honey; honey wine”). Cognate with Ancient Greek μέθυ (méthu) (whence English methyl), Lithuanian medùs, ... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter M in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.