MehlvsmerleWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#9,773
“Mehl” frequency rank
#28,761
“merle” frequency rank
38534
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Mehl merle
Definition meist aus gemahlenen Getreidekörnern gewonnenes pulverförmiges Produkt Amsel

Where the eye mixes Mehl and merle

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Mehl
5 ch
merle

Visual trap between Mehl and merle

A purely visual mix-up. Mehl ([meːl]) and merle ([mɛʁl]) 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 38534, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Mehl is recorded at frequency rank #9,773, classified as anoun, pronounced [meːl]. merle is at rank #28,761, tagged as anoun, pronounced [mɛʁl].

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 38534, this pair ranks #1,561,418 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Mehl vs merle

Shared letters: elm. Private to "Mehl": h. Private to "merle": r.

"Mehl" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "merle" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Mehlemhl · mehhl · mehll · melh · mhel · mmehl
  • merleemrle · melre · merel · merlle · merrle · mmerle · mrele

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Mehl" and "merle" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([meːl] versus [mɛʁl]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Mehl" or "merle"?
"Mehl" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,773 in our German list, against #28,761 for "merle". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "Mehl" and "merle" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Mehl" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "merle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,561,418 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Mehl" and "merle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "merle vs Mette". 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 #1,561,418 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