MEK
"mek" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“MEK” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #38,965) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #38,965
- frequency rank, English
- 4,057
- “M” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Initialism of methyl ethyl ketone.
Corpus desk
Index EN-mek · MEK · English
MEK · rank #38,965 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #38,965
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,057
- PHOTO-FINISH Medea
Nearest frequency peer: Medea (-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 neighbours of confusable “MEK”
Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below
- MCL
MCL
61,038 corpus weight
- Medea
Medea
61,037 corpus weight
- MEK
MEK
61,036 corpus weight
- mesmerized
mesmerized
61,035 corpus weight
- midge
midge
61,034 corpus weight
- minotaur
minotaur
61,032 corpus weight
What this shows Bars place “MEK” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.
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 | MEK |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #38,965 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Corpus rank beside confusables of “MEK”
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for MEK is neighbouring look-alikes ("my", "Mr", …), not just typos; it is anoun. Frequency #38,965 among 4,057 “M” headwords. 2 recorded senses keep meaning in play.
No generated misspelling entries exist for MEK in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "my", "Mr", "MS", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is MEK, spelled M-E-K.
Definition
- 1Initialism of methyl ethyl ketone.
- 2Initialism of mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how MEK appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
catalyst: A chemical that makes the polyester resin harden, usually MEK (methyl-ethyl-ketone)
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 "MEK"?
What does "MEK" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "MEK"?
What language does "MEK" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "MEK", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).