mustard
/ˈmʌstəɹd/
"mustard" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“mustard” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #11,428 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #11,428
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 3
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A plant of certain species of the genus Brassica, or of related genera (especially Sinapis alba, in the family Brassicaceae, with yellow flowers, and linear seed pods).
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | mustard |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈmʌstəɹd/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #11,428 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “mustard” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for mustard is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈmʌstəɹd/. Corpus data places it at rank #11,428 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for mustard, with forms such as "mmustard", "msutard", and "musatrd". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 3 confusable-pair relationships, "muster", "mustang", "Mustafa", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English mustard, from Old French moustarde (French moutarde), from moust (“must”), from Latin mustum. Compare Saterland Frisian Muster (“mustard”), Dutch mosterd (“mustard”), German Low German Musterd (“mustard”), Icelandic mustarður (“mustard”)… The correct English form is mustard, spelled M-U-S-T-A-R-D.
Definition
- 1A plant of certain species of the genus Brassica, or of related genera (especially Sinapis alba, in the family Brassicaceae, with yellow flowers, and linear seed pods).
- 2Powder or paste made from seeds of the mustard plant, and used as a condiment or a spice.
- 3The leaves of the mustard plant, used as a salad.
- 4Dark yellow colour, the colour of mustard.
- 5One of a family of vesicants containing one or more 2-chloroethyl (C₂H₄Cl) groups, commonly used in chemical warfare and cancer chemotherapy.
- 6The tomalley of a crab, which resembles the condiment.
- 7Ellipsis of mustard gas.
- 8Energy, power (when throwing a baseball).
Etymology
From Middle English mustard, from Old French moustarde (French moutarde), from moust (“must”), from Latin mustum. Compare Saterland Frisian Muster (“mustard”), Dutch mosterd (“mustard”), German Low German Musterd (“mustard”), Icelandic mustarður (“mustard”). Displaced Middle English senep, from Old English senep, from Latin sināpi (“mustard”). Sometimes mistakenly thought to come from Latin mustum ardens, but such a Latin phrase is not attested, and it is well understood that that the final -ard is derived from Old French -arde. Doublet of mostarda.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: mmustard,msutard,musatrd,musstard,mustadr,mustardd,mustarrd,mustrad,musttard,mutsard,umstard
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of mustard - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 "mustard"?
What does "mustard" mean?
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Using “mustard”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-U-S-T-A-R-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈmʌstəɹd/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “muster” - see the side-by-side comparison. mustard vs muster
- 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.