megavsultraWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: mega is a verb, ultra is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#3,982
“mega” frequency rank
#8,146
“ultra” frequency rank
12128
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mega ultra
Definition die Erlaubnis haben; dürfen weiter hinaus, jenseits, dahinter

Letter map: mega vs ultra

Shared letters muted; letters that set mega and ultra apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. mega runs 4 letters (CVCV) against ultra's 5 (VCCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
mega
5 ch
ultra

Grammar separator: mega vs ultra

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mega is averb and ultraanadverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12128, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mega is recorded at frequency rank #3,982, classified as averb, pronounced […]. ultra is at rank #8,146, tagged as anadv, 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 12128, this pair ranks #1,966,019 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mega vs ultra

Shared letters: a. Private to "mega": egm. Private to "ultra": lrtu.

"mega" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "ultra" · 5 letters · shape VCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mega ← emga · meag · megga · mgea · mmega
  • ultra ← lutra · ulltra · ulrta · ultar · ultrra · ulttra · utlra

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mega" and "ultra" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mega" is a verb and "ultra" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "mega" or "ultra" show up more?
"mega" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,982 in our German list, against #8,146 for "ultra". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "mega" vs "ultra" 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 "ultra" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,966,019 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mega" and "ultra" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs ultra". 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 #1,966,019 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