medley

/ˈmɛdli/

//ˈmɛdli// noun

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

"medley" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“medley” has 9 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #20,164. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#20,164
frequency rank, English
4,057
“M” headwords
9
tracked misspellings
13
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Combat, fighting; a battle.

Corpus desk

Index EN-medley · medley · English

medley · rank #20,164 · 9 variants · 13 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #20,164
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 13 pairs
  • VAR-MID 9 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,057
  • PHOTO-FINISH mayoral

Nearest frequency peer: mayoral (-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.

Rank peers near misspelling magnet “medley”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “medley” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

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).

medley vs Miley
50% similar
medley vs melee
67% similar
medley vs merle
67% similar

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

Key facts for medley
PropertyValue
Headwordmedley
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈmɛdli/
Letters6
Frequency rank#20,164
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs13
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “medley”

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).medleylands here:

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

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Same rarity band neighbours include “mayoral” (#20,163), “Maynard” (#20,162), “MH” (#20,167). Among 4,057 “M” headwords, “medley” is #20,164. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 9 spelling variants around medley (IPA /ˈmɛdli/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #20,164 among 4,057 “M” headwords. Wiktionary lists 5 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for medley, with forms such as "emdley", "mdeley", and "meddley". 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 13 confusable-pair relationships, "Miley", "melee", "merle", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English medle, from Anglo-Norman medlee, Old French medlee, from the feminine past participle of early Medieval Latin misculō (“to mix”). Compare meddle. Doublet of melee. The correct English form is medley, spelled M-E-D-L-E-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    Combat, fighting; a battle.
  2. 2
    A collection or mixture of miscellaneous things.
  3. 3
    A collection of related songs played or mixed together as a single piece.
  4. 4
    A competitive swimming event that combines the four strokes of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle.
  5. 5
    A cloth of mixed colours.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Thenne came the kyng of Irland and the kynge of the stryete marches to rescowe syre Tristram and sire Palomydes / There beganne a grete medle / & many knyghtes were smyten doune on bothe partyes / and alweyes sir launcelot spared sir Tristram / and he spared hym
  2. For greater shields they have, than that they can either doe or see ought, and being raunged by hundreds no doubt they will hinder one another in the medley, except some very few

Etymology

From Middle English medle, from Anglo-Norman medlee, Old French medlee, from the feminine past participle of early Medieval Latin misculō (“to mix”). Compare meddle. Doublet of melee.

Synonyms

mashup

This word in other languages

batiburrillo(Español)mélange(Français)Allerlei(Deutsch)medley(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • emdley
  • mdeley
  • meddley
  • medely
  • medleyy
  • medlley
  • medlye
  • meldey
  • mmedley

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

emdley2mdeley2meddley1medely2medleyy1medlley1medlye2meldey2
Edit distance from "medley"

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

How do you spell "medley"?
"medley" is spelled M-E-D-L-E-Y. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈmɛdli/.
What does "medley" mean?
As a noun, "medley" means: Combat, fighting; a battle.
What words are commonly confused with "medley"?
"medley" is commonly confused with "Miley", "melee", "merle". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "medley"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "medley" is /ˈmɛdli/. 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 "medley"?
From Middle English medle, from Anglo-Norman medlee, Old French medlee, from the feminine past participle of early Medieval Latin misculō (“to mix”). Compare meddle. Doublet of melee. 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 "medley", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

misled#20,170jacked#20,146phoned#20,182plugin#20,183

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (9 here; floor ≥5).

lawless9 variantsKaufman9 variantspuzzled9 variantsfinder9 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list