Mattress

How to spell mattress

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce mattress

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does mattress mean?

1. nounA large padded cushion that supports the body during sleep, used on a bed.

Mattress in a sentence

• The new mattress was too firm for her aching back.

• They flipped the mattress to even out the wear.

Where does mattress come from?

Language of origin: Arabic

The word traces back to the Arabic matrah, which literally meant 'a place where something is thrown down', from the verb taraha 'to throw'. In a culture where people slept and reclined on cushions laid on the floor, that 'thrown-down' spot naturally became the name for the cushion or pad itself. European traders picked it up during the Crusades, and it passed through Italian as materasso and Old French as materas before reaching Middle English in the 1200s as a padded cloth bag for sleeping on. The same Arabic root sits behind the Spanish almadraque and the older English form 'materas', and the gradual reshaping of that spelling is exactly why the modern word now carries an unexpected doubled -tt- and a doubled -ss. Many writers shorten one or both, so remembering the foreign origin and its long journey can help fix the two pairs of consonants in mind.

How the word is built

• mattress (single root from Arabic matrah, a place where something is thrown down); note the doubled -tt- and the -ss ending