malavsmelkTell them apart

Which to use

“mala” and “melk” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#45,440
“mala” frequency rank
#41,987
“melk” frequency rank
87427
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mala melk
Definition verkehrt, umgekehrt, gegenteilig, entgegengesetzt Milch gebend

Letter map: mala vs melk

Shared letters muted; letters that set mala and melk apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. mala (CVCV) and melk (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
mala
4 ch
melk

Pair insight - mala / melk

mala and melk are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 87427, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mala is recorded at frequency rank #45,440, classified as anadj. melk is at rank #41,987, tagged as anadj, pronounced [mɛlk].

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 87427, this pair ranks #80,534 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mala vs melk

Shared letters: lm. Private to "mala": a. Private to "melk": ek.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mala ← maal · malla · mlaa · mmala
  • melk ← emlk · mekl · melkk · mellk · mlek · mmelk

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mala" and "melk" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "mala" vs "melk" - which ranks higher?
"melk" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #41,987 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.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "mala" and "melk".

  • Full dictionary entry for "mala" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "melk" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #80,534 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mala" and "melk" 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 #80,534 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