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meet

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

4 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "meet", 4-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "meet" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "meet" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

meet is aEnglishverb. It means: To make contact (with someone) while in proximity. Pronounced /miːt/. It ranks #544 in English word frequency. Often confused with MT and men.

Key facts for meet
PropertyValue
Headwordmeet
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
IPA/miːt/
Letters4
Frequency rank#544
Misspellings tracked4
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of meet in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for meet is 4 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /miːt/. Corpus data places it at rank #544 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 14 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 4 documented wrong-spelling variants for meet, with forms such as "emet", "meett", and "mete". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, 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 meten, from Old English mētan (“to meet, find, encounter”), from Proto-West Germanic *mōtijan (“to meet”), from Proto-Germanic *mōtijaną (“to meet”), from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂d- (“to come, meet”). Cognates Cognate with Scots met, me… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is meet, spelled M-E-E-T, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    To make contact (with someone) while in proximity.
  2. 2
    To make contact (with someone) while in proximity.
  3. 3
    To make contact (with someone) while in proximity.
  4. 4
    To come together.
  5. 5
    To come together.
  6. 6
    To come together.
  7. 7
    To make physical or perceptual contact.
  8. 8
    To make physical or perceptual contact.
  9. 9
    To make physical or perceptual contact.
  10. 10
    To make physical or perceptual contact.
  11. 11
    To satisfy; to comply with.
  12. 12
    To balance or come out correct.
  13. 13
    To perceive; to come to a knowledge of; to have personal acquaintance with; to experience; to suffer.
  14. 14
    To be mixed with, to be combined with aspects of.

Etymology

From Middle English meten, from Old English mētan (“to meet, find, encounter”), from Proto-West Germanic *mōtijan (“to meet”), from Proto-Germanic *mōtijaną (“to meet”), from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂d- (“to come, meet”). Cognates Cognate with Scots met, mete, meit (“to meet”), North Frisian meet, mätje, möt (“to meet”), West Frisian mette, moetsje (“to meet”), Dutch ontmoeten (“to meet”), Low German möten (“to meet”), Danish møde (“to meet”), Elfdalian my̨öt (“to meet”), Faroese møta (“to meet”), Icelandic mæta (“to meet”), Norwegian Bokmål møte (“to meet”), Norwegian Nynorsk møta, møte (“to meet”), Swedish möta (“to meet”). Related to moot.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: emet,meett,mete,mmeet

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for meet

Misspelling Variants of "meet"

emet4meett5mete4mmeet5
Misspelling Variants of "meet"

Frequency rank: #544 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "meet"?
"meet" is spelled M-E-E-T. The IPA pronunciation is /miːt/.
What does "meet" mean?
As a verb, "meet" means: To make contact (with someone) while in proximity.
What words are commonly confused with "meet"?
"meet" 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 "meet"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "meet" 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 "meet"?
From Middle English meten, from Old English mētan (“to meet, find, encounter”), from Proto-West Germanic *mōtijan (“to meet”), from Proto-Germanic *mōtijaną (“to meet”), from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂d- (“to come, meet”). Cognates Cognate with Sco... 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.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter M in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.