mauvsminWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: mau is a adjective, min is an abbrev, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mau” is an adjective and “min” is an abbrev - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#17,357
“mau” frequency rank
#1,562
“min” frequency rank
18919
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mau min
Definition sich nicht ganz wohl fühlend Minute

Letter map: mau vs min

Shared letters muted; letters that set mau and min apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
mau
3 ch
min

Grammar separator: mau vs min

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mau is anadjective and minanabbrev. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18919, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mau is recorded at frequency rank #17,357, classified as anadj, pronounced [maʊ̯]. min is at rank #1,562, tagged as anabbrev, pronounced […].

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 18919, this pair ranks #1,913,546 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mau vs min

Shared letters: m. Private to "mau": au. Private to "min": in.

"mau" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "min" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mau" for "min" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mau" is an adjective and "min" an abbrev, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "mau" vs "min" - which ranks higher?
"min" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,562 in our German list, against #17,357 for "mau". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pair "mau" vs "min" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mau" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "min" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,913,546 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mau" and "min" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Mals vs mau". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,913,546 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