megavsmerWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: mega is a verb, mer is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mega” is a verb and “mer” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,982
“mega” frequency rank
#10,134
“mer” frequency rank
14116
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mega mer
Definition die Erlaubnis haben; dürfen das Meer, die See

Letter map: mega vs mer

Shared letters muted; letters that set mega and mer apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
mega
3 ch
mer

Part-of-speech tell for mega / mer

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mega is averb and meranoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14116, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mega is recorded at frequency rank #3,982, classified as averb, pronounced […]. mer is at rank #10,134, tagged as anoun, pronounced [mεːʀ].

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 14116, this pair ranks #1,953,446 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mega vs mer

Shared letters: em. Private to "mega": ag. Private to "mer": r.

"mega" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "mer" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • megaemga · meag · megga · mgea · mmega

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mega" and "mer" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mega" is a verb and "mer" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "mega" vs "mer" - which ranks higher?
"mega" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,982 in our German list, against #10,134 for "mer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "mega" vs "mer" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mega" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,953,446 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mega" and "mer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mer 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 #1,953,446 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