mescal
/mɛˈskæl/
"mescal" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“mescal” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A Mexican alcoholic drink distilled from the fermented juice of the agave.
Corpus desk
Index EN-mescal · mescal · English
mescal · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "M" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | mescal |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /mɛˈskæl/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “mescal” in English
Rare enough to double-check
mescal is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /mɛˈskæl/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
mescal doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Mexican Spanish mezcal, from Nahuatl or Classical Nahuatl mexcalli (“intoxicating drink made from fermented agave juice”), perhaps from metl (“maguey (agave)”) + ixcalli (“stew”). The correct English form is mescal, spelled M-E-S-C-A-L.
Definition
- 1A Mexican alcoholic drink distilled from the fermented juice of the agave.
- 2The peyote cactus.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how mescal appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
He thought: 900 pesos=100 bottles of whiskey=900 ditto tequila. Argal: one should drink neither tequila nor whiskey but mescal.
Etymology
From Mexican Spanish mezcal, from Nahuatl or Classical Nahuatl mexcalli (“intoxicating drink made from fermented agave juice”), perhaps from metl (“maguey (agave)”) + ixcalli (“stew”).
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.