MeervsmenWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,638
“Meer” frequency rank
#6,327
“men” frequency rank
7965
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Meer men
Definition großes, salziges Gewässer, die Gesamtheit des zusammenhängenden Gewässers, welches die Landmassen der Erde umgibt, ein bestimmter, geographisch abgegrenzter Teil dieses Gewässers Plural des Substantivs man

Where the eye mixes Meer and men

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Meer
3 ch
men

Visual trap between Meer and men

A purely visual mix-up. Meer ([meːɐ̯]) and men ([mɛn]) 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 7965, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Meer is recorded at frequency rank #1,638, classified as anoun, pronounced [meːɐ̯]. men is at rank #6,327, tagged as anoun, pronounced [mɛn].

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 7965, this pair ranks #1,986,134 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Meer vs men

Shared letters: em. Private to "Meer": r. Private to "men": n.

"Meer" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "men" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Meeremer · meerr · mere · mmeer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Meer" for "men" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([meːɐ̯] versus [mɛn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Meer" or "men"?
"Meer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,638 in our German list, against #6,327 for "men". 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 "Meer" and "men" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Meer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "men" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,986,134 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Meer" and "men" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "men vs Moden". 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 #1,986,134 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