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PlainSpell

smelt

/smɛlt/noun, verb

smelt is spelled S-M-E-L-T: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 29,270th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, smelt means “Any small anadromous fish of the family Osmeridae, found in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and in lakes in North America and northern part of Europe” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of smelt is smelts.

How many letters and syllables are in smelt?

Letters5: S-M-E-L-T
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writingabout once in every 1 million words; the 29,270th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

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).

How common is smelt?

Smelt appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 29,270th 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 smelt?

  • /smɛlt/

Smelt has one syllable (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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Pvanp7-smelt.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-smelt.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of smelt

  • smelts plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • smelting participle, present
  • smelted participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does smelt mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    Any small anadromous fish of the family Osmeridae, found in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and in lakes in North America and northern part of Europe.

  2. 2

    obsoleteA fool; a simpleton.

  3. 3

    Production of metal, especially iron, from ore in a process that involves heating and chemical reduction of metal compounds into purified metal.

  4. 4

    Any of the various liquids or semi-molten solids produced and used during the course of such production.

verb

  1. 1

    To produce metal, especially iron, from ore in a process that involves heating and chemical reduction of metal compounds into purified metal.

  2. 2

    simple past and past participle of smell (a form of smell)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Smelt in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchéperlan (fish of the family Osmeridae)
GermanStint (fish of the family Osmeridae), Schmelze (any of the molten liquids involved in these…), verschmelzen (to fuse produce metal, especially iron, from…)
Spanisheperlano (fish of the family Osmeridae), fundir, soldar, copelar (to fuse produce metal, especially iron, from…)
Portuguesefundir (to fuse produce metal, especially iron, from…)

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 smelt come from?

From Middle English smelt, from Old English smelt, from Proto-West Germanic *smelt, from Proto-Germanic *smeltaz.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after smelt