Skip to main content
PlainSpell

medieval

UK /ˌmɛd.iˈiː.vəl/adjective, noun

medieval is spelled M-E-D-I-E-V-A-L. The wrong spelling people search most is midevil: about 790 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 10 of all searches for the word. Medieval is an adjective meaning “Of or relating to the Middle Ages, the period from approximately 500 to 1500 AD”.

How many letters and syllables are in medieval?

Letters8: M-E-D-I-E-V-A-L
Syllables3 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing11 times per million words; the 6,565th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched6; the most searched, midevil, about 790 Bing searches a month (all of them)
Pairs people search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How do you spell medieval?

Medieval is spelled M-E-D-I-E-V-A-L. 6 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 2 in 10 of the searches for medieval in either form.

medievalthe right spelling6,830 searches a month
midevila missing e, d and i swapped, i in place of a790 searches a month
medievili in place of a480 searches a month
medeivali and e swapped170 searches a month
medeviala missing i, an extra i100 searches a month
medievele in place of a100 searches a month
medievealan extra e10 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is medieval?

Medieval appears 11 times per million words in written English, the 6,565th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce medieval?

  • UK /ˌmɛd.iˈiː.vəl/
  • UK /ˌmiː.diˈiː.vəl/
  • UK /mɪdˈiː.vəl/

Medieval has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-medieval.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Zazollo-medieval.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with medieval

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

mediaeval vs medieval0 B

Also written: mediaeval.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of medieval

  • more medieval comparative
  • most medieval superlative
  • mediaeval
  • medievals plural
  • more mediëval comparative
  • most mediëval superlative
  • mediëvals plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does medieval mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

    Of or relating to the Middle Ages, the period from approximately 500 to 1500 AD.

  2. 2

    Archaic.

  3. 3

    Brutal.

noun

  1. 1

    Someone living in the Middle Ages.

  2. 2

    A medieval example (of something aforementioned or understood from context).

    Thank God for modern remedies: the medievals were often useless or even harmful.

adjective

as mediëval
  1. 1

    rareRare spelling of medieval.

noun

as mediëval
  1. 1

    rareRare spelling of medieval.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Medieval in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchmédiéval (of or relating to the Middle Ages), moyenâgeux (having characteristics associated with the…)
Germanmittelalterlich (of or relating to the Middle Ages)
Portuguesemedieval (of or relating to the Middle Ages)
Spanishmedieval (of or relating to the Middle Ages)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does medieval come from?

From French médiéval (“medieval”), from Latin medium (“middle”) + aevum (“age”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after medieval