printed matter

noun

"printed-matter" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“printed matter” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
14
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Printed material produced by printers and publishers, including books, magazines, brochures, booklets, publicity material and newspapers, especially in relation to less expensive postage rates for ...

Key facts for printed matter
PropertyValue
Headwordprinted matter
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters14
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “printed matter” sits in English frequency

printed matter falls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

printed matter is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Printed material produced by printers and publishers, including books, magazines, brochures, booklets, publicity material and newspapers, especially in relation to less expensive postage rates for ...".

printed matter doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is printed matter, spelled P-R-I-N-T-E-D- -M-A-T-T-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Printed material produced by printers and publishers, including books, magazines, brochures, booklets, publicity material and newspapers, especially in relation to less expensive postage rates for such material.

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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "printed matter"?
"printed matter" is spelled P-R-I-N-T-E-D- -M-A-T-T-E-R.
What does "printed matter" mean?
As a noun, "printed matter" means: Printed material produced by printers and publishers, including books, magazines, brochures, booklets, publicity material and newspapers, especially in relation to less expensive postage rates for ...
What language does "printed matter" come from?
"printed matter" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Using “printed matter”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is P-R-I-N-T-E-D- -M-A-T-T-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • 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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list