meidevsMeileConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#38,897
“meide” frequency rank
#15,698
“Meile” frequency rank
54595
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature meide Meile
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs meiden Längenmaß in der Größenordnung von 1 bis 11 Kilometer, früher in Deutschland und Österreich etwa 7,5 Kilometer entsprechend, noch heute offiziell im Vereinigten Königreich und in den Vereinigten Staaten (1,609 Kilometer) sowie inoffiziell noch in Norwegen und Schweden (10 Kilometer)

Where the eye mixes meide and Meile

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. meide and Meile follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
meide
5 ch
Meile

Look-alike desk: meide vs Meile

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: meide is [ˈmaɪ̯də] while Meile is [ˈmaɪ̯lə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - d in “meide” becomes l in “Meile”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54595, 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]. Meile is at rank #15,698, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmaɪ̯lə].

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 54595, this pair ranks #1,012,682 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of meide vs Meile

Shared letters: eim. Private to "meide": d. Private to "Meile": l.

"meide" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "Meile" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • meide ← emide · medie · meidde · meied · miede · mmeide
  • Meile ← emile · meiel · meille · melie · miele · mmeile

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "meide" and "Meile" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "meide" is a verb and "Meile" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "meide" vs "Meile" - which ranks higher?
"Meile" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,698 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.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "meide" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Meile" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,012,682 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "meide" and "Meile" 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 #1,012,682 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