mortar
/ˈmoɹtɚ/noun, verb
mortar is spelled M-O-R-T-A-R. The wrong spelling people search most is morter: about 400 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 13 of all searches for the word. Mortar is a noun meaning “A mixture of lime or cement, sand and water used for bonding building blocks”. The plural of mortar is mortars.
How many letters and syllables are in mortar?
| Letters | 6: M-O-R-T-A-R |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 5.6 times per million words; the 10,358th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, morter, about 400 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| 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); 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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell mortar?
Mortar is spelled M-O-R-T-A-R. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 13 of the searches for mortar in either form.
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). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is mortar?
Mortar appears 5.6 times per million words in written English, the 10,358th 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 mortar?
- UK /ˈmɔːtə/
- British /ˈmoːtə/
- US /ˈmoɹtɚ/
Mortar has 2 syllables (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-mortar.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with mortar?
2 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as mortar from its last stressed vowel (/oɹtəɹ/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: marrot.
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 mortar
- mortars plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- mortaring participle, present
- mortared participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does mortar mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A mixture of lime or cement, sand and water used for bonding building blocks.
- 2
A hollow vessel used to pound, crush, rub, grind or mix ingredients with a pestle.
- 3
A short, heavy, large-bore cannon designed for indirect fire at very steep trajectories.
- 4
A relatively lightweight, often portable indirect fire weapon which transmits recoil to a base plate and is designed to lob explosive shells at very steep trajectories.
- 5
In paper milling, a trough in which material is hammered.
verb
- 1
To use mortar or plaster to join two things together.
- 2
To pound in a mortar.
- 3
To fire a mortar (weapon).
- 4
To attack (someone or something) using a mortar (weapon).
The insurgents snuck up close and mortared the base last night.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Mortar in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | mortier |
| German | Mörtel, Mauermörtel , Mörser , Granatwerfer |
| Portuguese | argamassa, massa, reboco , morteiro , almofariz |
| Spanish | mortero, argamasa , almirez |
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 mortar come from?
From Middle English morter, from Old French mortier, from Latin mortārium. Doublet of mortarium.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).