Which to use
“Macken” is a noun and “mahlen” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #31,672
- “Macken” frequency rank
- #37,068
- “mahlen” frequency rank
- 68740
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Macken | mahlen |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Macke | Material (mit einer Mühle) zerkleinern, indem es gerieben und gequetscht wird |
Where the eye mixes Macken and mahlen
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Macken and mahlen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between Macken and mahlen
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Macken is [ˈmakn̩] while mahlen is [ˈmaːlən]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68740, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Macken is recorded at frequency rank #31,672, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmakn̩]. mahlen is at rank #37,068, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈmaːlən].
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 68740, this pair ranks #498,376 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of Macken vs mahlen
Shared letters: aemn. Private to "Macken": ck. Private to "mahlen": hl.
"Macken" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "mahlen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Macken" for "mahlen" ever safe?
Which is more common, "Macken" or "mahlen"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "Macken" and "mahlen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "Macken" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mahlen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #498,376 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Macken" and "mahlen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mahlen vs mailen". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #498,376 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.