meidetvsmeinenTell them apart

Which to use

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

#34,802
“meidet” frequency rank
#280
“meinen” frequency rank
35082
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature meidet meinen
Definition 2. Person Plural Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs meiden einen bestimmten Standpunkt oder eine bestimmte Meinung vertreten

Where the eye mixes meidet and meinen

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

6 ch
meidet
6 ch
meinen

Look-alike desk: meidet vs meinen

A purely visual mix-up. meidet ([ˈmaɪ̯dət]) and meinen ([ˈmaɪ̯nən]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35082, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

meidet is recorded at frequency rank #34,802, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈmaɪ̯dət]. meinen is at rank #280, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈmaɪ̯nən].

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 35082, this pair ranks #1,648,521 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of meidet vs meinen

Shared letters: eim. Private to "meidet": dt. Private to "meinen": n.

"meidet" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "meinen" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • meidet ← emidet · mediet · meiddet · meidett · meidte · meiedt · miedet · mmeidet
  • meinen ← eminen · meienn · meinenn · meinnen · menien · mienen · mmeinen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "meidet" for "meinen" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmaɪ̯dət] versus [ˈmaɪ̯nən]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "meidet" or "meinen"?
"meinen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #280 in our German list, against #34,802 for "meidet". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "meidet" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "meinen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,648,521 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "meidet" and "meinen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "meidet vs Melder". 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 #1,648,521 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