metal
/ˈmɛ.təl/
"metal" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“metal” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #1,607 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #1,607
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Chemical elements or alloys, their ores, and the mines where their ores come from.
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 | metal |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈmɛ.təl/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #1,607 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “metal” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for metal is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈmɛ.təl/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,607 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 13 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for metal, with forms such as "emtal", "meatl", and "metall". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "MTA", "mets", "meth", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English metal, a borrowing from Old French metal, from Latin metallum (“metal, mine, quarry, mineral”), itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek μέταλλον (métallon, “mine, quarry, metal”). The correct English form is metal, spelled M-E-T-A-L.
Definition
- 1Chemical elements or alloys, their ores, and the mines where their ores come from.
- 2Chemical elements or alloys, their ores, and the mines where their ores come from.
- 3Chemical elements or alloys, their ores, and the mines where their ores come from.
- 4Chemical elements or alloys, their ores, and the mines where their ores come from.
- 5Chemical elements or alloys, their ores, and the mines where their ores come from.
- 6Chemical elements or alloys, their ores, and the mines where their ores come from.
- 7A light tincture used in a coat of arms, specifically argent (white or silver) and or (gold).
- 8Molten glass that is to be blown or moulded to form objects.
- 9A category of rock music encompassing a number of genres (including thrash metal, death metal, heavy metal, etc.) characterized by strong drumbeats and distorted guitars.
- 10The substance that constitutes something or someone; matter; hence, character or temper.
- 11The effective power or calibre of guns carried by a vessel of war.
- 12The rails of a railway.
- 13The actual airline operating a flight, rather than any of the codeshare operators.
Etymology
From Middle English metal, a borrowing from Old French metal, from Latin metallum (“metal, mine, quarry, mineral”), itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek μέταλλον (métallon, “mine, quarry, metal”).
Synonyms
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: emtal,meatl,metall,metla,mettal,mmetal,mteal
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of metal - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 “metal”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-E-T-A-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈmɛ.təl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “MTA” - see the side-by-side comparison. metal vs MTA
- 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.