MeikevsmerkeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Meike is a name, merke is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#38,282
“Meike” frequency rank
#6,565
“merke” frequency rank
44847
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Meike merke
Definition weiblicher Vorname 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs merken

Where the eye mixes Meike and merke

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Meike (CVVCV) and merke (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
Meike
5 ch
merke

Look-alike desk: Meike vs merke

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Meike is [ˈmaɪ̯kə] while merke is [ˈmɛʁkə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - i in “Meike” becomes r in “merke”, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44847, 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]. merke is at rank #6,565, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈmɛʁkə].

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 44847, this pair ranks #1,372,787 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Meike vs merke

Shared letters: ekm. Private to "Meike": i. Private to "merke": r.

"Meike" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "merke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Meike ← emike · meiek · meikke · mekie · mieke · mmeike
  • merke ← emrke · mekre · merek · merkke · merrke · mmerke · mreke

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Meike" and "merke" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Meike" is a name and "merke" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Meike" or "merke" show up more?
"merke" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,565 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.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "Meike" and "merke" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Meike" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "merke" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,372,787 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Meike" and "merke" 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 #1,372,787 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