mealtime

noun

"mealtime" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“mealtime” is uncommon English (frequency #66,081 among 36,575 “M” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#66,081
frequency rank, English
36,575
“M” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The appointed time at which a meal is served or eaten.

Corpus desk

Index EN-mealtime · mealtime · English

mealtime · rank #66,081 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #66,081
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 36,575
  • PHOTO-FINISH meany

Nearest frequency peer: meany (+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 “mealtime”

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

corpus weight

What this shows Bars show where “mealtime” 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 May 6, 2026
Key facts for mealtime
PropertyValue
Headwordmealtime
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters8
Frequency rank#66,081
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “mealtime” sits in English frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). mealtime lands here:

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

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

mealtime is uncommon English at frequency #66,081 among 36,575 “M” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The appointed time at which a meal is served or eaten.".

No generated misspelling entries exist for mealtime in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English meeltime, from Old English mǣltīma (“mealtime”), equivalent to meal + time. Compare mealtide, Old English mǣltīd (“mealtime”), Dutch maaltijd (“meal”), German Mahlzeit (“meal, mealtime”), Danish måltid (“meal, mealtime”), Icelandic máltí… The correct English form is mealtime, spelled M-E-A-L-T-I-M-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    The appointed time at which a meal is served or eaten.

Etymology

From Middle English meeltime, from Old English mǣltīma (“mealtime”), equivalent to meal + time. Compare mealtide, Old English mǣltīd (“mealtime”), Dutch maaltijd (“meal”), German Mahlzeit (“meal, mealtime”), Danish måltid (“meal, mealtime”), Icelandic máltíð (“meal”), Icelandic matmálstími (“mealtime”).

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 May 6, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "mealtime"?
"mealtime" is spelled M-E-A-L-T-I-M-E.
What does "mealtime" mean?
As a noun, "mealtime" means: The appointed time at which a meal is served or eaten.
What is the origin of the word "mealtime"?
From Middle English meeltime, from Old English mǣltīma (“mealtime”), equivalent to meal + time. Compare mealtide, Old English mǣltīd (“mealtime”), Dutch maaltijd (“meal”), German Mahlzeit (“meal, mealtime”), Danish måltid (“meal, mealtime”), Icela... 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 "mealtime", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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