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PlainSpell

mop

/mɑp/noun, verb

mop is spelled M-O-P: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 2.5 times per million words in written English, the 17,342nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, mop means “An implement for washing floors or similar, made of a piece of cloth, or a collection of thrums, or coarse yarn, fastened to a handle” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of mop is mops.

How many letters and syllables are in mop?

Letters3: M-O-P
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing2.5 times per million words; the 17,342nd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is mop?

Mop appears 2.5 times per million words in written English, the 17,342nd 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 mop?

  • UK /mɒp/
  • US /mɑp/

Mop has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-mop.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with mop?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as mop from its last stressed vowel (/ɑp/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: pom, pmo.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of mop

  • mops plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • mopping participle, present
  • mopped participle, past

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

What does mop mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    An implement for washing floors or similar, made of a piece of cloth, or a collection of thrums, or coarse yarn, fastened to a handle.

  2. 2

    A wash with a mop; the act of mopping.

    He gave the floor a quick mop to soak up the spilt juice.

  3. 3

    A dense head of hair.

    He ran a comb through his mop and hurried out the door.

  4. 4

    UKAn annual fair where servants were historically hired.

  5. 5

    UKobsoleteA tassel worn in a buttonhole to indicate ones occupation in such a fair.

  6. 6

    slangA firearm particularly if it has a large magazine (compare broom, but still can be related to MP)

  7. 7

    slangFellatio.

  8. 8

    A squeezable high-flow paint marker with an extra-wide felt or foam tip.

  9. 9

    UKobsoleteThe young of any animal.

  10. 10

    UKobsoleteA young girl; a moppet.

  11. 11

    A made-up face; a grimace.

verb

  1. 1

    To rub, scrub, clean or wipe with a mop, or as if with a mop.

    to mop (or scrub) a floor

  2. 2

    USslangTo shoplift.

  3. 3

    To make a wry expression with the mouth.

noun

as MOP
  1. 1

    USGBU-57; Acronym of Massive Ordnance Penetrator.

  2. 2

    Initialism of means of production.

  3. 3

    Initialism of mode of production.

  4. 4

    Initialism of method of payment.

  5. 5

    obsoleteInitialism of muriate of potash.

  6. 6

    Acronym of member of the public.

noun

as MoP
  1. 1

    Alternative letter-case form of MOP (“means of production”).

  2. 2

    Alternative letter-case form of MOP (“mode of production”).

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

Mop in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchserpillière, vadrouille, moppe, torchon (implement for washing floors), grimace (a grimace), tignasse (head of hair)
GermanMopp, Wischmopp, Schrubber, Aufnehmer (implement for washing floors), moppen, nass wischen (to rub, scrub, clean or wipe with a mop, or as…)
Portugueseesfregão (implement for washing floors)
Spanishchascona, coleto, fregona, lampazo, mapo, mechudo (implement for washing floors)

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 mop come from?

From Middle English mappe (also as mappel), perhaps borrowed from Walloon mappe (“napkin”), from Latin mappa (“napkin, cloth”). Believed to be from a Semitic source, variously claimed as Phoenician or Punic (the latter by Quintilian). Compare Modern Hebrew מַפָּה (mapá, “a map; a cloth”) (shortened from מַנְפָּה (manpah, “fluttering banner, streaming cloth”)). Doublet of map, nape, and nappe.

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

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