moulder
/ˈməʊldə/
"moulder" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“moulder” is uncommon English (frequency #82,562 among 36,575 “M” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #82,562
- frequency rank, English
- 36,575
- “M” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Often followed by away or down: to cause (something) to decay or rot, or to crumble to pieces.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | moulder |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈməʊldə/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #82,562 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “moulder” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
moulder is uncommon English at frequency #82,562 among 36,575 “M” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed /ˈməʊldə/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 5 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for moulder in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From mould (“loose friable soil; rotting earth regarded as the substance of the human body”) + -er (suffix forming frequentative verbs), probably influenced by mould (“furry growth of fungi”). Mould is derived from Middle English mold, molde (“loose friable… The correct English form is moulder, spelled M-O-U-L-D-E-R.
Definition
- 1Often followed by away or down: to cause (something) to decay or rot, or to crumble to pieces.
- 2To cause (someone or something) to die away or disappear.
- 3Often followed by away: to decay or rot, or to crumble to pieces.
- 4To die away, to disappear.
- 5Often followed by away: of a group of people (especially an army): to diminish in number; to dwindle.
Etymology
From mould (“loose friable soil; rotting earth regarded as the substance of the human body”) + -er (suffix forming frequentative verbs), probably influenced by mould (“furry growth of fungi”). Mould is derived from Middle English mold, molde (“loose friable soil, dirt, earth; earth as the substance out of which God made man, and to which the human body decays into after death”), from Old English molde (“earth, soil”), from Proto-Germanic *muldō (“dirt, soil; furry growth of fungi, mould”), from Proto-Indo-European *melh₂- (“to crush, grind”).
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 “moulder”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-O-U-L-D-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈməʊldə/ (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
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.