Which to use
“mei” is a noun and “meide” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,695
- “mei” frequency rank
- #38,897
- “meide” frequency rank
- 49592
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mei | meide |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | meine, die meinen/meinigen mit Bezug auf mehrere vorher erwähnte Objekte oder Personen | 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs meiden |
Where the eye mixes mei and meide
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: mei vs meide
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mei is [ˈmeʔi] while meide is [ˈmaɪ̯də]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “mei” sits inside “meide”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49592, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mei is recorded at frequency rank #10,695, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmeʔi]. meide is at rank #38,897, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈmaɪ̯də].
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 49592, this pair ranks #1,205,639 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of mei vs meide
Shared letters: eim. Private to "mei": -. Private to "meide": d.
"mei" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "meide" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- meide ← emide · medie · meidde · meied · miede · mmeide
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "mei" and "meide" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "mei" or "meide"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "mei" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "meide" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,205,639 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mei" and "meide" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "meide 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 #1,205,639 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.