meat

/miːt/

//miːt// noun

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

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

The verdict

“meat” has 5 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #2,355. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#2,355
frequency rank, English
4,057
“M” headwords
5
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The flesh (muscle tissue) of an animal used as food, or a food designed to replicate its taste and texture (like plant-based meat).

Corpus desk

Index EN-meat · meat · English

meat · rank #2,355 · 5 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #2,355
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 5 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,057
  • PHOTO-FINISH MA

Nearest frequency peer: MA (-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 “meat”

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

corpus weight

What this shows Bars show where “meat” 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).

meat vs MT
0% similar
meat vs men
50% similar
meat vs met
75% similar

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

Key facts for meat
PropertyValue
Headwordmeat
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/miːt/
Letters4
Frequency rank#2,355
Misspellings tracked5
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “meat” 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).meat lands here:

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

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

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 5 spelling variants around meat (IPA /miːt/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #2,355 among 4,057 “M” headwords. Wiktionary lists 12 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for meat, with forms such as "emat", "maet", and "meatt". 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, "MT", "men", "met", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English mete, from Old English mete (“food”), from Proto-West Germanic *mati, from Proto-Germanic *matiz (“food”), from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂d- (“to drip, ooze; grease, fat”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian Miit (“meat”), Danish mad (“f… The correct English form is meat, spelled M-E-A-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    The flesh (muscle tissue) of an animal used as food, or a food designed to replicate its taste and texture (like plant-based meat).
  2. 2
    A type of meat, by anatomic position and provenance.
  3. 3
    Food, for animals or humans, especially solid food.
  4. 4
    A type of food, a dish.
  5. 5
    A meal.
  6. 6
    Meal; flour.
  7. 7
    Any relatively thick, solid part of a fruit, nut etc.
  8. 8
    A penis.
  9. 9
    The best or most substantial part of something.
  10. 10
    The sweet spot of a bat or club (in cricket, golf, baseball etc.).
  11. 11
    A meathead.
  12. 12
    A totem, or (by metonymy) a clan or clansman which uses it.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. A large portion of domestic meat production comes from animals raised on factory farms.
  2. The homesteading teenager shot a deer to supply his family with wild meat for the winter.

Etymology

From Middle English mete, from Old English mete (“food”), from Proto-West Germanic *mati, from Proto-Germanic *matiz (“food”), from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂d- (“to drip, ooze; grease, fat”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian Miit (“meat”), Danish mad (“food”), Faroese and Icelandic matur (“food, meal”), Norn mader (“food”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish mat (“food”), Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐍄𐍃 (mats, “food”). A -ja- derivation from the same base is found in Middle Dutch and Middle Low German met (“lean pork”), from which Dutch met (“minced pork”) and German Mett (“minced meat”) derive, respectively. Compare also Old Irish mess (“animal feed”) and Welsh mes (“acorns”), English mast (“fodder for swine and other animals”), which are probably from the same root.

Synonyms

meatflesh

This word in other languages

carne(Español)viande(Français)Fleisch(Deutsch)carne(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • emat
  • maet
  • meatt
  • meta
  • mmeat

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

emat2maet2meatt1meta2mmeat1
Edit distance from "meat"

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 "meat"?
"meat" is spelled M-E-A-T. The IPA pronunciation is /miːt/.
What does "meat" mean?
As a noun, "meat" means: The flesh (muscle tissue) of an animal used as food, or a food designed to replicate its taste and texture (like plant-based meat).
What words are commonly confused with "meat"?
"meat" is commonly confused with "MT", "men", "met". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "meat"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "meat" is /miːt/. 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 "meat"?
From Middle English mete, from Old English mete (“food”), from Proto-West Germanic *mati, from Proto-Germanic *matiz (“food”), from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂d- (“to drip, ooze; grease, fat”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian Miit (“meat”), Dani... 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 "meat", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

mode#2,357neck#2,358zero#2,377Alex#2,378

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (5 here; floor ≥5).

jail5 variantspure5 variantswave5 variantsfail5 variants

What to do next

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

  • "meat" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "MT". View pair
  • 5 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
  • Usage frequency rank #2,355 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