MausvsmuConfusable pair

Quick tell: Maus is a noun, mu is an unknown, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Maus” is a noun and “mu” is an unknown - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,634
“Maus” frequency rank
#18,336
“mu” frequency rank
22970
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Maus mu
Definition kleines graues oder braunes Säugetier mit überwiegend langem Schwanz, rattenähnlich, in der Zuchtform auch weiß oder schwarz Genitiv Singular des Personalpronomens mina

Letter map: Maus vs mu

Shared letters muted; letters that set Maus and mu apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
Maus
2 ch
mu

Part-of-speech tell for Maus / mu

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Maus is anoun and muanunknown. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22970, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Maus is recorded at frequency rank #4,634, classified as anoun, pronounced [maʊ̯s]. mu is at rank #18,336, tagged as anunknown, 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 22970, this pair ranks #1,867,381 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Maus vs mu

Shared letters: mu. Private to "Maus": as. Private to "mu": -.

"Maus" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "mu" · 2 letters · shape CV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Mausamus · masu · mauss · mmaus · muas

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Maus" and "mu" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Maus" is a noun and "mu" an unknown, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Maus" or "mu" show up more?
"Maus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,634 in our German list, against #18,336 for "mu". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "Maus" and "mu". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Maus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,867,381 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Maus" and "mu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mu vs puzzles". 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 #1,867,381 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