MeikevsmeisteWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Meike is a name, meiste is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Meike” is a name and “meiste” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#38,282
“Meike” frequency rank
#6,087
“meiste” frequency rank
44369
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Meike meiste
Definition weiblicher Vorname Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs meist

Where the eye mixes Meike and meiste

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Meike runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against meiste's 6 (CVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
Meike
6 ch
meiste

Why the eye confuses Meike with meiste

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Meike is [ˈmaɪ̯kə] while meiste is [ˈmaɪ̯stə]. 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 (name vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44369, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Meike is recorded at frequency rank #38,282, classified as aname, pronounced [ˈmaɪ̯kə]. meiste is at rank #6,087, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈmaɪ̯stə].

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 44369, this pair ranks #1,388,399 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Meike vs meiste

Shared letters: eim. Private to "Meike": k. Private to "meiste": st.

"Meike" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "meiste" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Meikeemike · meiek · meikke · mekie · mieke · mmeike
  • meisteemiste · meiset · meisste · meistte · meitse · mesite · mieste · mmeiste

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Meike" and "meiste" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Meike" is a name and "meiste" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Meike" vs "meiste" - which ranks higher?
"meiste" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,087 in our German list, against #38,282 for "Meike". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Meike" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "meiste" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,388,399 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Meike" and "meiste" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Meike 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 #1,388,399 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