meistvsmesConfusable pair

Quick tell: meist is a adjective, mes is an unknown, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“meist” is an adjective and “mes” is an unknown - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#620
“meist” frequency rank
#31,176
“mes” frequency rank
31796
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature meist mes
Definition Superlativ zu viel Plural Maskulinum des Pronomens mon

Where the eye mixes meist and mes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
meist
3 ch
mes

Visual trap between meist and mes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: meist is [maɪ̯st] while mes is [me]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs unknown), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31796, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

meist is recorded at frequency rank #620, classified as anadj, pronounced [maɪ̯st]. mes is at rank #31,176, tagged as anunknown, pronounced [me].

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 31796, this pair ranks #1,720,851 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of meist vs mes

Shared letters: ems. Private to "meist": it. Private to "mes": -.

"meist" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "mes" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • meistemist · meisst · meistt · meits · mesit · miest · mmeist

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "meist" for "mes" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "meist" is an adjective and "mes" an unknown, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "meist" vs "mes" - which ranks higher?
"meist" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #620 in our German list, against #31,176 for "mes". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "meist" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,720,851 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "meist" and "mes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Mals vs mes". 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 #1,720,851 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