MadsenvsmissenWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Madsen is a name, missen is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Madsen” is a name and “missen” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,315
“Madsen” frequency rank
#21,697
“missen” frequency rank
70012
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Madsen missen
Definition dänischer Familienname etwas entbehren

Letter map: Madsen vs missen

Shared letters muted; letters that set Madsen and missen apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. Madsen and missen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
Madsen
6 ch
missen

Role in the sentence - Madsen and missen

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Madsen is aname and missenaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70012, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Madsen is recorded at frequency rank #48,315, classified as aname, pronounced […]. missen is at rank #21,697, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈmɪsn̩].

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 70012, this pair ranks #459,148 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Madsen vs missen

Shared letters: emns. Private to "Madsen": ad. Private to "missen": i.

"Madsen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "missen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Madsen ← amdsen · maddsen · madesn · madsenn · madsne · madssen · masden · mdasen
  • missen ← imssen · misen · misesn · missenn · missne · mißen · mmissen · msisen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Madsen" and "missen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Madsen" is a name and "missen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Madsen" or "missen" show up more?
"missen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,697 in our German list, against #48,315 for "Madsen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "Madsen" and "missen". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Madsen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "missen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #459,148 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Madsen" and "missen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Madsen vs puzzles". 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 #459,148 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list