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mantle

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mantle¹

  • /ˈmæn.təl/

Sounds like mantel · Rhymes with -æntəl

Where it comes from

From Middle English mantel, from Old English mæntel, mentel (“sleeveless cloak”), from Proto-West Germanic *mantel; later reinforced by Anglo-Norman mantel, both from Latin mantellum (“covering, cloak”) (French manteau), diminutive of mantum (Spanish manto), probably from Gaulish *mantos, *mantalos (“trodden road”), from Proto-Celtic *mantos, *mantlos, from Proto-Indo-European *menH- (“tread, press together; crumble”). Compare Icelandic möttull. Doublet of manteau.

noun mantles

  1. A piece of clothing somewhat like an open robe or cloak, especially that worn by Orthodox bishops. The people of the village all said, "It could be none but the good-natured Dwarfs, who come by night tripping along with their feet covered with long mantles, as light as birds, and industriously perform for mankind their daily work."
  2. figuratively A figurative garment representing authority or status, capable of affording protection. At the meeting, she finally assumed the mantle of leadership of the party.
  3. figuratively Anything that covers or conceals something else; a cloak. But look, the morn, in russet mantle clad, walks o'er the dew of yon high eastward hill.
  4. The body wall of a mollusc, from which the shell is secreted. He grasps the female from slightly below about the mid-mantle region and positions himself so his arms are close to the opening of her mantle.
  5. The back of a bird together with the folded wings.
  6. The zone of hot gases around a flame.
  7. A gauzy fabric impregnated with metal nitrates, used in some kinds of gas and oil lamps and lanterns, which forms a rigid but fragile mesh of metal oxides when heated during initial use and then produces white light from the heat of the flame below it. (So called because it is hung above the lamp's flame like a mantel.)
  8. The outer wall and casing of a blast furnace, above the hearth.
  9. A penstock for a water wheel.
  10. The cerebral cortex.
  11. The layer between Earth's core and crust. The crust (a mere 1% of the Earth's volume) is made of lighter melt products from the mantle.
  12. Any similar layer in an exoplanet.
  13. alternative Alternative spelling of mantel (“shelf above fireplace”).
  14. A mantling.

verb mantles · mantling · mantled

  1. transitive To cover or conceal (something); to cloak; to disguise. As the morning steals upon the night, Melting the darkness; so their rising senses Begin to chace the ign'rant fumes, that mantle Their clearer reason.
  2. intransitive To become covered or concealed.
  3. intransitive To spread like a mantle (especially of blood in the face and cheeks when a person flushes). […]—that the richest people in the world have the hardest hearts in it, and refuse to help their fellow-creatures, save through the medium of ostentation, and in return for value received?—that the highest and oldest nobility in Europe—the purest blood which ever mantled in the lovely cheek of virgi
  4. To climb over or onto something.
  5. The action of stretching out the wings to hide food.
  6. The action of stretching a wing and the same side leg out to one side of the body.

Mantle²

proper noun

  1. A surname.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: pallium, pall, blanket, drape, drapery, curtain, mantlepiece, mantelpiece, chimneypiece, cape, mantel, cloak, robe, overcoat, jacket, raincoat

Translations

Every language

noun incandescent gauze in a gas lamp

Españolcamisa
Françaismanchon
DeutschGlühstrumpf
Italianoreticella
Русскийкали́льная се́тка kalílʹnaja sétka

noun clothing like an open robe or cloak

Españolmanto, pendil, manteo
한국어망토 mangto
日本語マント manto, マントル mantoru
中文斗篷 dǒupeng
Portuguêsmanto
Françaismanteau
DeutschUmhang, Mantel
Italianomantello
Ελληνικάμανδύας mandýas
Românămanta, mantie
Русскийма́нтия mántija, манто́ mantó
עבריתאַדֶּרֶת adéret

noun figurative: anything that covers or conceals something else

Españolmanto
Françaisles rênes
DeutschMantel, Hülle, Umhüllung

noun zoology: body wall of a mollusc

Españolmanto
Portuguêsmanto
Françaismanteau
DeutschMantel
Italianomantello
Русскийма́нтия mántija

noun anatomy: cerebral cortex

中文大脑皮质 dànǎo pízhì, 大腦皮質 /大脑皮质 dànǎo pízhì
DeutschHirnrinde, Rinde

noun geology: layer of Earth

Españolmanto
한국어맨틀 maenteul
日本語マントル mantoru
Portuguêsmanto
Françaismanteau
DeutschErdmantel, Mantel
Italianomantello
Ελληνικάμανδύας mandýas
Русскийма́нтия mántija
العربيةوِشَاح wišāḥ

Talk about this word

Cite this
MLA

"mantle." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/mantle. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

mantle. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/mantle

Chicago

"mantle." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/mantle.

BibTeX
@misc{mantle_2026,
  title = {mantle},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/mantle},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}