meavsmiauTell them apart

Quick tell: mea is a pronoun, miau is an intj, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#36,498
“mea” frequency rank
#46,841
“miau” frequency rank
83339
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mea miau
Definition Possessivpronomen der 1. Person Singular ‚mein‘, ‚meine‘ Laut der Katze

Where the eye mixes mea and miau

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. mea runs 3 letters (CVV) against miau's 4 (CVVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
mea
4 ch
miau

Why the eye confuses mea with miau

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mea is [ˈmea] while miau is [miˈaʊ̯]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs intj), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 83339, 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]. miau is at rank #46,841, tagged as anintj, pronounced [miˈaʊ̯].

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 83339, this pair ranks #141,582 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mea vs miau

Shared letters: am. Private to "mea": e. Private to "miau": iu.

"mea" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "miau" · 4 letters · shape CVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • miau ← imau · maiu · miua · mmiau

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mea" and "miau" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mea" is a pronoun and "miau" an intj, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "mea" or "miau"?
"mea" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,498 in our German list, against #46,841 for "miau". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mea" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "miau" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #141,582 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mea" and "miau" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "miau vs miro". 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 #141,582 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