meidevsmeinsWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: meide is a verb, meins is an unknown, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#38,897
“meide” frequency rank
#7,085
“meins” frequency rank
45982
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature meide meins
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs meiden Nominativ Singular Neutrum bei nicht attributivem Gebrauch des Possessivpronomens mein

Where the eye mixes meide and meins

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. meide (CVVCV) and meins (CVVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
meide
5 ch
meins

Look-alike desk: meide vs meins

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: meide is [ˈmaɪ̯də] while meins is [maɪ̯ns]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs unknown), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45982, 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]. meins is at rank #7,085, tagged as anunknown, pronounced [maɪ̯ns].

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 45982, this pair ranks #1,334,550 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of meide vs meins

Shared letters: eim. Private to "meide": d. Private to "meins": ns.

"meide" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "meins" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • meide ← emide · medie · meidde · meied · miede · mmeide
  • meins ← emins · meinns · meinss · meisn · menis · miens · mmeins

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "meide" for "meins" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "meide" is a verb and "meins" an unknown, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "meide" or "meins"?
"meins" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,085 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

Eye-level mix-up between "meide" and "meins" 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 "meins" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,334,550 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "meide" and "meins" 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 #1,334,550 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