meidevsmeidenWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#38,897
“meide” frequency rank
#11,482
“meiden” frequency rank
50379
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature meide meiden
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs meiden etwas dafür tun, einer Person oder Sache nicht zu begegnen

Where the eye mixes meide and meiden

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. meide runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against meiden's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
meide
6 ch
meiden

Why the eye confuses meide with meiden

A purely visual mix-up. meide ([ˈmaɪ̯də]) and meiden ([ˈmaɪ̯dn̩]) 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 extra letter(s) - “meide” sits inside “meiden”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50379, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

meide is recorded at frequency rank #38,897, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈmaɪ̯də]. meiden is at rank #11,482, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈmaɪ̯dn̩].

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 50379, this pair ranks #1,175,867 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of meide vs meiden

Shared letters: deim. Private to "meide": -. Private to "meiden": n.

"meide" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "meiden" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • meide ← emide · medie · meidde · meied · miede · mmeide
  • meiden ← emiden · meidden · meidenn · meidne · meiedn · mieden · mmeiden

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "meide" and "meiden" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmaɪ̯də] versus [ˈmaɪ̯dn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "meide" or "meiden"?
"meiden" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,482 in our German list, against #38,897 for "meide". 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 "meide" and "meiden" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "meide" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "meiden" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,175,867 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "meide" and "meiden" 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 #1,175,867 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