metastasis
/mɪˈtæstəsɪs/
"metastasis" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“metastasis” has 15 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #34,194. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #34,194
- frequency rank, English
- 36,575
- “M” headwords
- 15
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A change in nature, form, or quality.
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 | metastasis |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /mɪˈtæstəsɪs/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #34,194 |
| Misspellings tracked | 15 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “metastasis” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 15 spelling variants around metastasis (IPA /mɪˈtæstəsɪs/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #34,194 among 36,575 “M” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 15 likely wrong-spelling variants for metastasis, with forms such as "emtastasis", "meatstasis", and "metasatsis". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "metastatic", "metastases", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Learned borrowing from Late Latin metastasis (“(rhetoric) rapid or sudden transition from one argument, point, or topic to another”), and from its etymons Koine Greek μετάστασις (metástasis, “(rhetoric) rapid or sudden transition from one argument, point, o… The correct English form is metastasis, spelled M-E-T-A-S-T-A-S-I-S.
Definition
- 1A change in nature, form, or quality.
- 2The spread of something harmful to another location, such as the metastasis of a cancer.
- 3A sudden or rapid transition from one point, topic or argument to another, often to evade an uncomfortable subject or to redirect the discussion.
- 4The transference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body, specifically the development of a secondary area of disease remote from the original site, as with some cancers.
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Late Latin metastasis (“(rhetoric) rapid or sudden transition from one argument, point, or topic to another”), and from its etymons Koine Greek μετάστασις (metástasis, “(rhetoric) rapid or sudden transition from one argument, point, or topic to another”) and Ancient Greek μετάστασις (metástasis, “change; removal; (medicine) movement of disease, pain, etc., from one part of the body to another”), from μετᾰ- (metă-, prefix denoting change in condition or position) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *meth₂) + στᾰ́σῐς (stắsĭs, “condition, state; position”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand (up)”)), modelled after μεθιστάναι (methistánai, “to change; to remove”). By surface analysis, meta- + stasis. In reference to the spread of cancer, a semantic loan from French métastase, whose use to refer to it was coined in 1829 by the French gynecologist Joseph Récamier (1774–1852). The plural form metastases is a learned borrowing from Late Latin metastases.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- emtastasis
- meatstasis
- metasatsis
- metasstasis
- metastaiss
- metastasiss
- metastassi
- metastassis
- metastsais
- metasttasis
- metatsasis
- metsatasis
- mettastasis
- mmetastasis
- mteastasis
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of metastasis - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 "metastasis"?
What does "metastasis" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "metastasis"?
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Using “metastasis”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-E-T-A-S-T-A-S-I-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /mɪˈtæstəsɪs/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “metastatic” - see the side-by-side comparison. metastasis vs metastatic
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Same frequency band
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.