muffle
/mʌfl̩/
"muffle" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“muffle” is an uncommon English word, ranked #68,466 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #68,466
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Anything that mutes or deadens sound.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | muffle |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /mʌfl̩/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #68,466 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “muffle” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for muffle is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /mʌfl̩/. Corpus data places it at rank #68,466 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No generated misspelling entries exist for muffle in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English muflen (“to muffle”), aphetic alteration of Anglo-Norman amoufler, from Old French enmoufler (“to wrap up, muffle”), from moufle (“mitten”), from Medieval Latin muffula (“a muff”), of Germanic origin (—first recorded in the Capitulary of… The correct English form is muffle, spelled M-U-F-F-L-E.
Definition
- 1Anything that mutes or deadens sound.
- 2A warm piece of clothing for the hands.
- 3A boxing glove.
- 4A kiln or furnace, often electric, with no direct flames (a muffle furnace)
- 5The bare end of the nose between the nostrils, especially in ruminants.
- 6A machine with two pulleys to hoist load by spinning wheels, polyspast, block and tackle.
Etymology
From Middle English muflen (“to muffle”), aphetic alteration of Anglo-Norman amoufler, from Old French enmoufler (“to wrap up, muffle”), from moufle (“mitten”), from Medieval Latin muffula (“a muff”), of Germanic origin (—first recorded in the Capitulary of Aachen in 817 C.E.), from Frankish *muffël (“a muff, wrap, envelope”) from *mauwa (“sleeve, wrap”) (from Proto-Germanic *mawwō (“sleeve”)) + *vël (“skin, hide”) (from Proto-Germanic *fellą (“skin, film, fleece”). Alternate etymology traces the Medieval Latin word to Frankish *molfell (“soft garment made of hide”) from *mol (“softened, forworn”) (akin to Old High German molawēn (“to soften”), Middle High German molwic (“soft”), English mulch) + *fell (“hide, skin”).
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "muffle"?
What does "muffle" mean?
How do you pronounce "muffle"?
What is the origin of the word "muffle"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “muffle”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-U-F-F-L-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /mʌfl̩/ (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
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.