mesh
/mɛʃ/
"mesh" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“mesh” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #10,401 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #10,401
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A structure made of connected strands of metal, fiber, or other flexible/ductile material, with evenly spaced openings between them.
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 | mesh |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /mɛʃ/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #10,401 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “mesh” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for mesh is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /mɛʃ/. Corpus data places it at rank #10,401 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for mesh, with forms such as "emsh", "mehs", and "meshh". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "MS", "MH", "met", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English mesche, from Old English masc (“net”) (perhaps influenced in form by related Old English mæscre (“mesh, spot”)), from the related Proto-Germanic *maskwǭ and *maskrǭ respectively, from Proto-Indo-European *mezg- (“to knit, twist, plait”).… The correct English form is mesh, spelled M-E-S-H.
Definition
- 1A structure made of connected strands of metal, fiber, or other flexible/ductile material, with evenly spaced openings between them.
- 2The opening or space enclosed by the threads of a net between knot and knot, or the threads enclosing such a space.
- 3The engagement of the teeth of wheels, or of a wheel and rack.
- 4A measure of fineness (particle size) of ground material. A powder that passes through a sieve having 300 openings per linear inch but does not pass 400 openings per linear inch is said to be -300 +400 mesh.
- 5A polygon mesh.
- 6In mesh analysis: a loop in an electric circuit (to which Kirchhoff's voltage law can be applied).
- 7A network topology with each device connected to multiple other devices in lieu of a central switch. Redundancy on a mesh network prevents single points of failure.
Etymology
From Middle English mesche, from Old English masc (“net”) (perhaps influenced in form by related Old English mæscre (“mesh, spot”)), from the related Proto-Germanic *maskwǭ and *maskrǭ respectively, from Proto-Indo-European *mezg- (“to knit, twist, plait”). Akin to Old High German māsca (“mesh”), Old Saxon maska (“net”), Old Norse mǫskvi, mǫskun (“mesh”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: emsh,mehs,meshh,messh,mmesh,mseh
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of mesh - 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 “mesh”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-E-S-H - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /mɛʃ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “MS” - see the side-by-side comparison. mesh vs MS
- 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.