meager
/ˈmiɡɚ/
"meager" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“meager” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #27,213 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #27,213
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Having little flesh; lean; thin.
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 | meager |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈmiɡɚ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #27,213 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “meager” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for meager is 6 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈmiɡɚ/. Corpus data places it at rank #27,213 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for meager, with forms such as "emager", "maeger", and "meaegr". 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, "meer", "meter", "merge", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English megre, from Anglo-Norman megre, Old French maigre, from Latin macer, from Proto-Indo-European *mh₂ḱrós. Akin, through the Indo-European root, to Old English mæġer (“meager, lean”), West Frisian meager (“meager”), Dutch mager (“meager”), … The correct English form is meager, spelled M-E-A-G-E-R.
Definition
- 1Having little flesh; lean; thin.
- 2Poor, deficient or inferior in amount, quality or extent
- 3Of a set: such that, considered as a subset of a (usually larger) topological space, it is in a precise sense small or negligible.
- 4Dry and harsh to the touch (e.g., as chalk).
Etymology
From Middle English megre, from Anglo-Norman megre, Old French maigre, from Latin macer, from Proto-Indo-European *mh₂ḱrós. Akin, through the Indo-European root, to Old English mæġer (“meager, lean”), West Frisian meager (“meager”), Dutch mager (“meager”), German mager, Icelandic magr whence the Icelandic magur, Norwegian Bokmål mager and Danish mager. Doublet of maigre.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: emager,maeger,meaegr,meagerr,meagger,megaer,mmeager
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of meager - 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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Using “meager”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-E-A-G-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈmiɡɚ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “meer” - see the side-by-side comparison. meager vs meer
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.