MaltevsMelleWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#10,326
“Malte” frequency rank
#37,077
“Melle” frequency rank
47403
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Malte Melle
Definition männlicher Vorname eine Stadt in Niedersachsen, Deutschland

Where the eye mixes Malte and Melle

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Malte and Melle follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
Malte
5 ch
Melle

Look-alike desk: Malte vs Melle

A purely visual mix-up. Malte ([ˈmaltə]) and Melle ([ˈmɛlə]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47403, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Malte is recorded at frequency rank #10,326, classified as aname, pronounced [ˈmaltə]. Melle is at rank #37,077, tagged as aname, pronounced [ˈmɛlə].

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 47403, this pair ranks #1,285,489 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Malte vs Melle

Shared letters: elm. Private to "Malte": at. Private to "Melle": -.

"Malte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Melle" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Malteamlte · malet · mallte · maltte · matle · mlate · mmalte
  • Melleemlle · mele · melel · mlele · mmelle

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Malte" for "Melle" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmaltə] versus [ˈmɛlə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Malte" vs "Melle" - which ranks higher?
"Malte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,326 in our German list, against #37,077 for "Melle". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "Malte" and "Melle" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Malte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Melle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,285,489 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Malte" and "Melle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Melle vs Mette". 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 #1,285,489 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