meltdown
"meltdown" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“meltdown” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #13,957 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #13,957
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 13
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Severe overheating of the core of a nuclear reactor resulting in the core melting and potentially in radiation escaping.
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 | meltdown |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #13,957 |
| Misspellings tracked | 13 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “meltdown” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for meltdown is 8 letters long, classified as a noun. Corpus data places it at rank #13,957 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 13 likely wrong-spelling variants for meltdown, with forms such as "emltdown", "meldtown", and "melltdown". 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 1 confusable-pair relationship, "melton", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Deverbal from melt down. The correct English form is meltdown, spelled M-E-L-T-D-O-W-N.
Definition
- 1Severe overheating of the core of a nuclear reactor resulting in the core melting and potentially in radiation escaping.
- 2A situation being likened to a nuclear meltdown; a crisis.
- 3A tantrum or emotional outburst.
- 4An autistic response to stress or sensory overload, in which the person is overwhelmed by intense, seemingly disproportionate emotions, behaving erratically and becoming unable to mask.
Etymology
Deverbal from melt down.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: emltdown,meldtown,melltdown,meltddown,meltdonw,meltdownn,meltdowwn,meltdwon,meltodwn,melttdown,metldown,mletdown,mmeltdown
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of meltdown - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 “meltdown”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-E-L-T-D-O-W-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “melton” - see the side-by-side comparison. meltdown vs melton
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.