meal

/miːl/

//miːl// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"meal" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“meal” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #3,113) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#3,113
frequency rank, English
4,057
“M” headwords
3
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Food that is prepared and eaten, usually at a specific time, and usually in a comparatively large quantity.

Corpus desk

Index EN-meal · meal · English

meal · rank #3,113 · 3 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #3,113
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 3 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,057
  • PHOTO-FINISH Lewis

Nearest frequency peer: Lewis (-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.

Frequency neighbourhood for “meal”

Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)

corpus weight

What this shows Bars show where “meal” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

meal vs ML
0% similar
meal vs men
50% similar
meal vs met
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for meal
PropertyValue
Headwordmeal
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/miːl/
Letters4
Frequency rank#3,113
Misspellings tracked3
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “meal” sits in English frequency

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).meal lands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for meal is neighbouring look-alikes ("ML", "men", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /miːl/. Frequency #3,113 among 4,057 “M” headwords. 4 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our generated misspelling index lists 3 likely wrong-spelling variants for meal, with forms such as "emal", "meall", and "mmeal". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ML", "men", "met", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English mel, from Old English mǣl (“measure, time, occasion, set time, time for eating, meal”), from Proto-West Germanic *māl, from Proto-Germanic *mēlą, from Proto-Indo-European *meh₁- (“to measure”). Cognate with West Frisian miel, Dutch maal … The correct English form is meal, spelled M-E-A-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    Food that is prepared and eaten, usually at a specific time, and usually in a comparatively large quantity.
  2. 2
    Food served or eaten as a repast.
  3. 3
    A break taken by a police officer in order to eat.
  4. 4
    A time or an occasion.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how meal appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Breakfast is the morning meal, lunch is the noon meal, and dinner, or supper, is the evening meal.
  2. c1450, Secreta Secretorumː He that will cast meal upon meal is not able to have (a) long life.

Etymology

From Middle English mel, from Old English mǣl (“measure, time, occasion, set time, time for eating, meal”), from Proto-West Germanic *māl, from Proto-Germanic *mēlą, from Proto-Indo-European *meh₁- (“to measure”). Cognate with West Frisian miel, Dutch maal (“meal, time, occurrence”), German Mal (“time”), Mahl (“meal”), Norwegian Bokmål mål (“meal”), Swedish mål (“meal”); and (from Proto-Indo-European) with Ancient Greek μέτρον (métron, “measure”), Latin mensus, Russian ме́ра (méra, “measure”), Lithuanian mẽtas. Related to Old English mǣþ (“measure, degree, proportion”).

Synonyms

mealmeserefectionrepast

This word in other languages

comida(Español)repas(Français)Mahlzeit(Deutsch)refeição(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • emal
  • meall
  • mmeal

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of meal - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

emal2meall1mmeal1
Edit distance from "meal"

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.

PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 3, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "meal"?
"meal" is spelled M-E-A-L. The IPA pronunciation is /miːl/.
What does "meal" mean?
As a noun, "meal" means: Food that is prepared and eaten, usually at a specific time, and usually in a comparatively large quantity.
What words are commonly confused with "meal"?
"meal" is commonly confused with "ML", "men", "met". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "meal"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "meal" is /miːl/. 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 "meal"?
From Middle English mel, from Old English mǣl (“measure, time, occasion, set time, time for eating, meal”), from Proto-West Germanic *māl, from Proto-Germanic *mēlą, from Proto-Indo-European *meh₁- (“to measure”). Cognate with West Frisian miel, D... 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.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "meal", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

grey#3,105earn#3,102auto#3,099rape#3,127

What to do next

You've looked up "meal". Here's where to go from here.

  • "meal" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "ML". View pair
  • 3 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
  • Usage frequency rank #3,113 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
  • Browse more English words in the "M" letter cohort. M–Z browse
  • PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list