melba
"melba" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“melba” is uncommon English (frequency #55,593 among 36,575 “M” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #55,593
- frequency rank, English
- 36,575
- “M” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A dessert made originally from peach (now also other fruits), ice cream, and raspberry.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | melba |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #55,593 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “melba” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
melba is uncommon English at frequency #55,593 among 36,575 “M” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A dessert made originally from peach (now also other fruits), ice cream, and raspberry.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for melba, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Peach Melba, a dish invented for Nellie Melba, an Australian opera singer. The correct English form is melba, spelled M-E-L-B-A.
Definition
- 1A dessert made originally from peach (now also other fruits), ice cream, and raspberry.
Etymology
From Peach Melba, a dish invented for Nellie Melba, an Australian opera singer.
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 “melba”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-E-L-B-A - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.