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PlainSpell

mettle

met·tle/ˈmɛtəl/noun, adjective

mettle is spelled M-E-T-T-L-E: 6 letters and 2 syllables (met·tle). It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 40,703rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “meddle vs mettle” about 140 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, mettle means “A quality of courage and endurance” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of mettle is mettles.

How many letters and syllables are in mettle?

Letters6: M-E-T-T-L-E
Syllables2: met·tle
In writingabout once in every 2 million words; the 40,703rd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How common is mettle?

Mettle appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 40,703rd most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce mettle?

  • /ˈmɛtəl/

Mettle has 2 syllables, split met·tle in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-mettle.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with mettle

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

meddle vs mettle140 G
metal vs mettle0 B

Sounds like: metal (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Also written: metal.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of mettle

  • mettles plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does mettle mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A quality of courage and endurance.

  2. 2

    Good temperament and character.

  3. 3

    obsoleteObsolete spelling of metal (“metallic substance”).

adjective

  1. 1

    ScotlandSpirited, vigorous, stout-hearted.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Mettle in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchprouesse (a quality of endurance and courage)
GermanMut, Eifer, Enthusiasmus, Stamina (a quality of endurance and courage), Feurigkeit (good temperament and character)
Portuguesefirmeza (a quality of endurance and courage)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does mettle come from?

From figurative use of metal (since 16th century). The two spellings were originally interchangeable variants, but came to be distinguished by sense in the 18th century.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after mettle