mellifluous
/məˈlɪflu.əs/adjective
mellifluous is spelled M-E-L-L-I-F-L-U-O-U-S. The wrong spelling people search most is mellifulous: about 20 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 47 of all searches for the word. Mellifluous is an adjective meaning “Flowing like honey”.
How many letters and syllables are in mellifluous?
| Letters | 11: M-E-L-L-I-F-L-U-O-U-S |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 8 million words; the 86,301st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, mellifulous, about 20 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell mellifluous?
Mellifluous is spelled M-E-L-L-I-F-L-U-O-U-S. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 47 of the searches for mellifluous in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is mellifluous?
Mellifluous appears about once in every 8 million words in written English, the 86,301st most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce mellifluous?
- US /məˈlɪflu.əs/
- US /mɛˈlɪflu.əs/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-mellifluous.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of mellifluous
- more mellifluous comparative
- most mellifluous superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does mellifluous mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Flowing like honey.
- 2
Sweet, smooth and musical; pleasant to hear (generally used of a person's voice, tone or writing style).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Mellifluous in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| Portuguese | melífluo |
| Spanish | melifluo |
| French | mélodieux, mielleux, melliflue |
| German | honigsüß, lieblich, wohlklingend |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does mellifluous come from?
From Middle English mellifluous, mellyfluous, from Latin mellifluus (“flowing like honey”) + -ous, from mel (“honey”) + fluō (“flow”). Compare superfluous and fluid, from same root, and with dulcet (“sweet speech”), alternative Latinate term with a similar meaning.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).