Which to use
“malt” is a verb and “mel” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #13,197
- “malt” frequency rank
- #15,943
- “mel” frequency rank
- 29140
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | malt | mel |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens des Verbs malen | der Honig |
Where the eye mixes malt and mel
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses malt with mel
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: malt is [maːlt] while mel is [mɛɫ]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29140, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
malt is recorded at frequency rank #13,197, classified as averb, pronounced [maːlt]. mel is at rank #15,943, tagged as anoun, pronounced [mɛɫ].
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 29140, this pair ranks #1,772,268 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of malt vs mel
Shared letters: lm. Private to "malt": at. Private to "mel": e.
"malt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "mel" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- malt ← amlt · mallt · maltt · matl · mlat · mmalt
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "malt" for "mel" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "malt" or "mel" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "malt" and "mel" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "malt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mel" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,772,268 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "malt" and "mel" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mel vs Memel". 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 #1,772,268 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.