mesh
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
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4 characters
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English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "mesh", 4-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "mesh" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "mesh" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
mesh is aEnglishnoun. It means: A structure made of connected strands of metal, fiber, or other flexible/ductile material, with evenly spaced openings between them. Pronounced /mɛʃ/. Often confused with MS and MH.
| 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) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for mesh is 4 letters long, classified as anoun, 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 Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 6 documented wrong-spelling variants for mesh, with forms such as "emsh", "mehs", and "meshh". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "MS", "MH", "met", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
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”).… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is mesh, spelled M-E-S-H, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
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
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for mesh
Misspelling Variants of "mesh"
Frequency rank: #10,401 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter M in our English index: