MardervsMördernTell them apart

Which to use

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

#38,273
“Marder” frequency rank
#39,540
“Mördern” frequency rank
77813
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Marder Mördern
Definition eine Familie (Mustelidae) hundeartiger Raubtiere Dativ Plural des Substantivs Mörder

Where the eye mixes Marder and Mördern

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. Marder runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against Mördern's 7 (CVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
Marder
7 ch
Mördern

Why the eye confuses Marder with Mördern

A purely visual mix-up. Marder ([ˈmaʁdɐ]) and Mördern ([ˈmœʁdɐn]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77813, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Marder is recorded at frequency rank #38,273, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmaʁdɐ]. Mördern is at rank #39,540, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmœʁdɐn].

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 77813, this pair ranks #252,331 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Marder vs Mördern

Shared letters: demr. Private to "Marder": a. Private to "Mördern": nö.

"Marder" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Mördern" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Marder ← amrder · madrer · mardder · marderr · mardre · maredr · marrder · mmarder

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Marder" for "Mördern" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmaʁdɐ] versus [ˈmœʁdɐn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Marder" vs "Mördern" - which ranks higher?
"Marder" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #38,273 in our German list, against #39,540 for "Mördern". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Marder" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Mördern" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #252,331 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Marder" and "Mördern" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Mörderin vs Mördern". 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 #252,331 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