mettle

C2+ Topic:People & Society

US /ˈmɛtəl/ UK /ˈmɛt(ə)l/ See IPA manual

Homophones

metal /ˈmɛ.təl/

Meanings

1

noun
a person's spirit, courage, and resolve under pressure

The crisis tested the young captain's mettle.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a person's spirit, courage,... courage spirit fortitude resolve nerve grit valor tenacity

Opposites

cowardice timidityfaintheartedness

Word family

Derived forms mettlesome

Related forms metal

Etymology

A variant spelling of metal (from Old French metal, from Latin metallum 'metal, mine', from Greek métallon), originally a figurative use of 'metal' for a person's intrinsic quality or temper; the spellings diverged in the 17th century.

metallum Latin métallon Ancient Greek

View etymology graph ->

Topics

People & Society

External links

# mettle

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈmɛtəl/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈmɛt(ə)l/

## Meanings
1. a person's spirit, courage, and resolve under pressure

## Examples
- The crisis tested the young captain's mettle.

## Synonyms
- courage
- spirit
- fortitude
- resolve
- nerve
- grit
- valor
- tenacity

## Antonyms
- cowardice
- timidity
- faintheartedness

## Derived Forms
- mettlesome

## Related Forms
- metal

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: metallum
- Root: métallon

## Etymology
A variant spelling of metal (from Old French metal, from Latin metallum 'metal, mine', from Greek métallon), originally a figurative use of 'metal' for a person's intrinsic quality or temper; the spellings diverged in the 17th century.

## AI Etymology
Mettle has this etymological development: A variant spelling of metal (from Old French metal, from Latin metallum 'metal, mine', from Greek métallon), originally a figurative use of 'metal' for a person's intrinsic quality or temper; the spellings diverged in the 17th century. The etymological trail includes Latin metallum, Ancient Greek métallon. The same word family includes mettlesome, metal. Its current noun use means "a person's spirit, courage, and resolve under pressure".

## Topics
- People & Society

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