meander
/miˈæn.də(ɹ)/
"meander" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“meander” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #42,263 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #42,263
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 10
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - One of the turns of a winding, crooked, or involved course.
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 | meander |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /miˈæn.də(ɹ)/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #42,263 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 10 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “meander” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for meander is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /miˈæn.də(ɹ)/. Corpus data places it at rank #42,263 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for meander, with forms such as "emander", "maender", and "meadner". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 10 confusable-pair relationships, "Mendes", "Mendez", "Mendel", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin Maeander, from Ancient Greek Μαίανδρος (Maíandros) – a river in Asia Minor (present day Turkey) known for its winding course (modern Turkish Menderes). The correct English form is meander, spelled M-E-A-N-D-E-R.
Definition
- 1One of the turns of a winding, crooked, or involved course.
- 2One of a series of regular sinuous curves, bends, loops, turns, or windings in the channel of a river, stream, or other watercourse
- 3A tortuous or winding journey.
- 4Synonym of Greek key, a decorative border; fretwork.
- 5A self-avoiding closed curve which intersects a line a number of times.
- 6A path on which the directions, distances, and elevations are noted, as a part of a land survey.
- 7A decorative border consisting of a repeated linear motif, particularly of intersecting perpendicular lines.
Etymology
From Latin Maeander, from Ancient Greek Μαίανδρος (Maíandros) – a river in Asia Minor (present day Turkey) known for its winding course (modern Turkish Menderes).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: emander,maender,meadner,meandder,meanderr,meandre,meanedr,meannder,menader,mmeander
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of meander - 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 “meander”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-E-A-N-D-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /miˈæn.də(ɹ)/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Mendes” - see the side-by-side comparison. meander vs Mendes
- 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.