MeiervsmeinesConfusable pair

Quick tell: Meier is a noun, meines is an unknown, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Meier” is a noun and “meines” is an unknown - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,789
“Meier” frequency rank
#1,137
“meines” frequency rank
8926
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Meier meines
Definition Beamter eines adligen oder geistlichen Grundherrn, der die Verwaltung und Bewirtschaftung des Haupthofes (Meierhof) übernahm, später Pächter des größten Hofs Genitiv Singular Maskulinum des Possessivpronomens mein

Where the eye mixes Meier and meines

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Meier
6 ch
meines

Why the eye confuses Meier with meines

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Meier is [ˈmaɪ̯ɐ] while meines is [ˈmaɪ̯nəs]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs unknown), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8926, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Meier is recorded at frequency rank #7,789, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmaɪ̯ɐ]. meines is at rank #1,137, tagged as anunknown, pronounced [ˈmaɪ̯nəs].

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 8926, this pair ranks #1,982,190 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Meier vs meines

Shared letters: eim. Private to "Meier": r. Private to "meines": ns.

"Meier" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC  ·  "meines" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Meieremier · meeir · meierr · meire · mieer · mmeier
  • meinesemines · meiens · meiness · meinnes · meinse · menies · mienes · mmeines

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Meier" and "meines" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Meier" is a noun and "meines" an unknown, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Meier" or "meines" show up more?
"meines" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,137 in our German list, against #7,789 for "Meier". 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 "Meier" and "meines" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Meier" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "meines" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,982,190 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Meier" and "meines" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Meier vs Memel". 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 #1,982,190 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