meavsMetalWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: mea is a pronoun, Metal is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mea” is a pronoun and “Metal” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#36,498
“mea” frequency rank
#5,627
“Metal” frequency rank
42125
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mea Metal
Definition Possessivpronomen der 1. Person Singular ‚mein‘, ‚meine‘ in den 70ern entstandene Stilrichtung der Musik

Where the eye mixes mea and Metal

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. mea runs 3 letters (CVV) against Metal's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
mea
5 ch
Metal

Visual trap between mea and Metal

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mea is [ˈmea] while Metal is [ˈmɛtl̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42125, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mea is recorded at frequency rank #36,498, classified as apron, pronounced [ˈmea]. Metal is at rank #5,627, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmɛtl̩].

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 42125, this pair ranks #1,458,834 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mea vs Metal

Shared letters: aem. Private to "mea": -. Private to "Metal": lt.

"mea" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "Metal" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Metal ← emtal · meatl · metla · mettal · mmetal · mteal

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mea" for "Metal" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mea" is a pronoun and "Metal" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "mea" vs "Metal" - which ranks higher?
"Metal" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,627 in our German list, against #36,498 for "mea". 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 "mea" and "Metal" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mea" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Metal" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,458,834 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mea" and "Metal" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mea vs mora". 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 #1,458,834 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