mete
/miːt/
"mete" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“mete” is an uncommon English word, ranked #58,845 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #58,845
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To dispense, measure in order to dispense, allot (especially punishment, reward etc.).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | mete |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /miːt/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #58,845 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “mete” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for mete is 4 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /miːt/. Corpus data places it at rank #58,845 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "To dispense, measure in order to dispense, allot (especially punishment, reward etc.).".
No generated misspelling entries exist for mete in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English meten, from Old English metan (“to measure, mete out, mark off, compare, estimate; pass over, traverse”), from Proto-West Germanic *metan, from Proto-Germanic *metaną (“to measure”), from Proto-Indo-European *med- (“to measure, consider”… The correct English form is mete, spelled M-E-T-E.
Definition
- 1To dispense, measure in order to dispense, allot (especially punishment, reward etc.).
Etymology
From Middle English meten, from Old English metan (“to measure, mete out, mark off, compare, estimate; pass over, traverse”), from Proto-West Germanic *metan, from Proto-Germanic *metaną (“to measure”), from Proto-Indo-European *med- (“to measure, consider”). Cognate with Scots mete (“to measure”), Saterland Frisian meete (“to measure”), West Frisian mjitte (“to measure”), Dutch meten (“to measure”), German messen (“to measure”), Swedish mäta (“to measure”), Latin modus (“limit, measure, target”), Ancient Greek μεδίμνος (medímnos, “measure, bushel”), Ancient Greek μέδεσθαι (médesthai, “care for”), Old Armenian միտ (mit, “mind”).
This word in other languages
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 “mete”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-E-T-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /miːt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.