meltwater

noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"meltwater" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“meltwater” is uncommon English (frequency #75,200 among 4,057 “M” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#75,200
frequency rank, English
4,057
“M” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Water from melting ice or snow.

Corpus desk

Index EN-meltwater · meltwater · English

meltwater · rank #75,200 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #75,200
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,057
  • PHOTO-FINISH Megs

Nearest frequency peer: Megs (-2 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.

Long-tail ranks near “meltwater”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “meltwater” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for meltwater
PropertyValue
Headwordmeltwater
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters9
Frequency rank#75,200
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “meltwater” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).meltwaterfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Rare peers in the same band: “Megs” (#75,198), “meekness” (#75,197), “McPhail” (#75,195). Among 4,057 “M” headwords, “meltwater” is #75,200. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

meltwater is uncommon English at frequency #75,200 among 4,057 “M” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Water from melting ice or snow.".

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for meltwater, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: From melt + water. The correct English form is meltwater, spelled M-E-L-T-W-A-T-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Water from melting ice or snow.

Etymology

From melt + water.

This word in other languages

eau de fonte(Français)Schmelzwasser(Deutsch)

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 "meltwater"?
"meltwater" is spelled M-E-L-T-W-A-T-E-R.
What does "meltwater" mean?
As a noun, "meltwater" means: Water from melting ice or snow.
What is the origin of the word "meltwater"?
From melt + water. 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.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "meltwater", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

mortician#75,219motorhead#75,221mouthfeel#75,222occlusive#75,254

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list