Which to use
“meinen” and “melken” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #280
- “meinen” frequency rank
- #27,412
- “melken” frequency rank
- 27692
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | meinen | melken |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | einen bestimmten Standpunkt oder eine bestimmte Meinung vertreten | Milch vom Milchvieh gewinnen |
Where the eye mixes meinen and melken
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between meinen and melken
A purely visual mix-up. meinen ([ˈmaɪ̯nən]) and melken ([ˈmɛlkn̩]) 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 27692, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
meinen is recorded at frequency rank #280, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈmaɪ̯nən]. melken is at rank #27,412, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈmɛlkn̩].
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 27692, this pair ranks #1,797,497 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of meinen vs melken
Shared letters: emn. Private to "meinen": i. Private to "melken": kl.
"meinen" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "melken" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "meinen" and "melken" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "meinen" or "melken"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "meinen" and "melken" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "meinen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "melken" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,797,497 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "meinen" and "melken" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "melken vs Milben". 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 #1,797,497 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.