Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definitions: Pell-mell |
Pell-mellAdjective1. With undue hurry and confusion; "a helter-skelter kind of existence with never a pause"; "a pell-mell dash for the train". Adverb1. In a wild or reckless manner; "dashing harum-scarum all over the place"; "running pell-mell up the stairs". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "pell-mell" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1593. (references) |
| Domain | Definitions |
Literature | Pell-mell Headlong; in reckless confusion. From the players of pallmall, who rush heedlessly to strike the ball. The "pall" is the ball (Italian, palla), and the "mall" is the mallet or bat (Italian, maglia; Latin, malleus). Sometimes the game is called "pall mall;" and sometimes the ground set apart for the game, as Pall Mall, Londo It is not quite certain that pell-mell is the same compound word as pall-mall. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Slang in 1811 | PELL-MELL. Tumultuously, helter skelter, jumbled together. Source: 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. |
Tips from 1870 | Usage: Pell-mell. "He rushes pell-mell down the street." One bird cannot flock by itself, nor can one man rush pell-mell. It will require at least several men to produce the intermixing and confusion which the word is intended to convey. CHAPTER VIII Conjunctions As a general rule, sentences should not begin with conjunctions. And, or, and nor are often needlessly employed to introduce a sentence. The disjunctive but may sometimes be used to advantage in this position, and in animated and easy speech or writing the coordinate conjunction and may be serviceable, but these and all other conjunctions, when made to introduce sentences, should be used sparingly. Source: Slips of Speech. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonyms: Pell-mellSynonyms: helter-skelter (adj), harum-scarum (adv). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Pell-mell |
| English words defined with "pell-mell": harum-scarum, helter-skelter. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "pell-mell": Pell-mell, pell-mell structure. (references) |
| "Pell-mell" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 80.00% of the time. "Pell-mell" is used about 5 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 80% | 4 | 175,879 |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 20% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 5 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Language | Translations for "pell-mell"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | stenstyrtning (pell-mell blocks). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | gestorte blokken (pell-mell blocks). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | sikinsokin (in a mess, topsy-turvy, upside down), huiskin haiskin (helter-skelter). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | blocs pêle-mêle (pell-mell blocks). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Pêle-mêle Bloecke (pell-mell blocks), durcheinander verstuertzte Bloecke (pell-mell blocks). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | ογκόλιθοι τυχαία τοποθετημένοι (pell-mell blocks). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | összevissza (helter-skelter, higgledy-piggledy, hugger-mugger, hurry-skurry, indiscriminate, pell mell, promiscuous, rambler, slap dash, slap-dash, straggly, to scour about, to straggle, topsy-turvy). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | massi alla rinfusa (pell-mell blocks). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | er mooin y cheilley (helter-skelter). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | ell-mellpay неразбериха (bewilderment, box-up, confusion, hurrah's nest, mix, mix up, muddle, pell mell, skein, snafu, topsy-turvydom, welter). (various references) escollera arrojada (pell-mell blocks). (various references) huller om buller (helter-skelter, higgledy-piggledy, pell mell, topsy turvy, upside down). (various references) tình trạng ngổn ngang bừa bãi, tình trạng lộn xộn (mess, mix-up, muddle, mull, topsyturvydom, trouble), tình trạng hỗn loạn (helter-skelter, lawlessness, topsyturvydom), tình trạng hỗn độn (mess, muss), cảnh lộn xộn, cảnh hỗn loạn, cảnh hỗn độn. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Misspellings | |
"Pell-mell" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: pellmell. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: pellmell. | |
| Words within the letters "e-e-l-l-l-l-m-p" | |
-4 letters: mell, peel, pele. | |
-5 letters: eel, ell, elm, eme, lee, mel, pee. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-e-l-l-l-l-m-p" | |
+1 letter: pellmells. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)50 65 6C 6C 2D 6D 65 6C 6C |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01010000 01100101 01101100 01101100 00101101 01101101 01100101 01101100 01101100 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)P e l l - m e l l |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0050 0065 006C 006C 002D 006D 0065 006C 006C |
Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)507178781579717878 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage Frequency | 5. Translations: Modern 6. Derivations 7. Anagrams 8. Orthography | 9. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
