mope
/məʊp/
"mope" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“mope” is uncommon English (frequency #70,921 among 4,057 “M” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #70,921
- frequency rank, English
- 4,057
- “M” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To carry oneself in a depressed, lackadaisical manner; to give oneself up to low spirits; to pout, sulk.
Corpus desk
Index EN-mope · mope · English
mope · rank #70,921 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #70,921
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,057
- PHOTO-FINISH Montparnasse
Nearest frequency peer: Montparnasse (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Long-tail ranks near “mope”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- moisten
moisten
29,084 corpus weight
- Moniz
Moniz
29,083 corpus weight
- monstrously
monstrously
29,082 corpus weight
- Montparnasse
Montparnasse
29,081 corpus weight
- mope
mope
29,080 corpus weight
- mordant
mordant
29,079 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “mope” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | mope |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /məʊp/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #70,921 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “mope” in English
Rare enough to double-check
mope is uncommon English at frequency #70,921 among 4,057 “M” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed /məʊp/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for mope in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: Late Middle English (as a noun meaning "simpleton, fool"), probably related to mop (“young of an animal, moppet”). Alternatively, of North Germanic origin, related to Swedish mopa (“to sulk”), Danish måbe, themselves borrowed from Low German mopen (“to make… The correct English form is mope, spelled M-O-P-E.
Definition
- 1To carry oneself in a depressed, lackadaisical manner; to give oneself up to low spirits; to pout, sulk.
- 2To make spiritless and stupid.
Etymology
Late Middle English (as a noun meaning "simpleton, fool"), probably related to mop (“young of an animal, moppet”). Alternatively, of North Germanic origin, related to Swedish mopa (“to sulk”), Danish måbe, themselves borrowed from Low German mopen (“to make faces, gape”), of uncertain ultimate origin, but compare Proto-West Germanic *mauwu (“protruding lip, pout”). Compare also German muffen, French moue.
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.
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "mope", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).