MalervsMayrWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Maler is a noun, Mayr is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Maler” is a noun and “Mayr” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,811
“Maler” frequency rank
#21,353
“Mayr” frequency rank
26164
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Maler Mayr
Definition Künstler, der Bilder malt deutscher Familienname

Where the eye mixes Maler and Mayr

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Maler
4 ch
Mayr

Look-alike desk: Maler vs Mayr

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Maler is [ˈmaːlɐ] while Mayr is [ˈmaɪ̯ɐ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26164, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Maler is recorded at frequency rank #4,811, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmaːlɐ]. Mayr is at rank #21,353, tagged as aname, pronounced [ˈmaɪ̯ɐ].

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 26164, this pair ranks #1,822,181 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Maler vs Mayr

Shared letters: amr. Private to "Maler": el. Private to "Mayr": y.

"Maler" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "Mayr" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Maleramler · maelr · malerr · maller · malre · mlaer · mmaler
  • Mayramyr · mayrr · mayyr · mmayr · myar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Maler" for "Mayr" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Maler" is a noun and "Mayr" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Maler" or "Mayr"?
"Maler" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,811 in our German list, against #21,353 for "Mayr". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Maler" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Mayr" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,822,181 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Maler" and "Mayr" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Mals vs Mayr". 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 #1,822,181 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