malavsMalzTell them apart

Quick tell: mala is a adjective, Malz is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mala” is an adjective and “Malz” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#45,440
“mala” frequency rank
#28,306
“Malz” frequency rank
73746
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mala Malz
Definition verkehrt, umgekehrt, gegenteilig, entgegengesetzt in Wasser gekeimtes und anschließend getrocknetes (gedarrtes) Getreide, meist Gerste; wird hauptsächlich zur Bierherstellung verwendet

Letter map: mala vs Malz

Shared letters muted; letters that set mala and Malz apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. mala (CVCV) and Malz (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
mala
4 ch
Malz

Role in the sentence - mala and Malz

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mala is anadjective and Malzanoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - a in “mala” becomes z in “Malz”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73746, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mala is recorded at frequency rank #45,440, classified as anadj. Malz is at rank #28,306, tagged as anoun, pronounced [malt͡s].

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 73746, this pair ranks #352,018 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mala vs Malz

Shared letters: alm. Private to "mala": -. Private to "Malz": z.

"mala" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Malz" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mala ← maal · malla · mlaa · mmala
  • Malz ← amlz · mallz · malzz · mazl · mlaz · mmalz

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mala" and "Malz" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mala" is an adjective and "Malz" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "mala" or "Malz" show up more?
"Malz" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,306 in our German list, against #45,440 for "mala". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "mala" and "Malz". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mala" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Malz" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #352,018 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mala" and "Malz" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mala vs mora". 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 #352,018 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