meditate
/ˈmɛ.dɪˌteɪt/
"meditate" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“meditate” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #20,705 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #20,705
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 3
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To contemplate; to keep the mind fixed upon something; to study.
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 | meditate |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈmɛ.dɪˌteɪt/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #20,705 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “meditate” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for meditate is 8 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈmɛ.dɪˌteɪt/. Corpus data places it at rank #20,705 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for meditate, with forms such as "emditate", "mdeitate", and "medditate". 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 3 confusable-pair relationships, "meditative", "mediate", "medicare", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: First attested in 1560; borrowed from Latin meditātus, perfect active participle of meditor (“to think or reflect upon, consider, design, purpose, intend”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), morphologically as if frequenta… The correct English form is meditate, spelled M-E-D-I-T-A-T-E.
Definition
- 1To contemplate; to keep the mind fixed upon something; to study.
- 2To sit or lie down and come to a deep rest while still remaining conscious.
- 3To consider; to reflect on.
Etymology
First attested in 1560; borrowed from Latin meditātus, perfect active participle of meditor (“to think or reflect upon, consider, design, purpose, intend”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), morphologically as if frequentative of medeor (“to heal, to cure, to remedy”); in sense and in form near to Ancient Greek μελετάω (meletáō, “to care for, attend to, study, practise, etc.”). Participial usage up until Early Modern English.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: emditate,mdeitate,medditate,mediatte,meditaet,meditatte,medittae,medittate,medtiate,meidtate,mmeditate
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of meditate - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 “meditate”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-E-D-I-T-A-T-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈmɛ.dɪˌteɪt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “meditative” - see the side-by-side comparison. meditate vs meditative
- 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.