meistevsmeistenWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“meiste” and “meisten” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#6,087
“meiste” frequency rank
#479
“meisten” frequency rank
6566
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature meiste meisten
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs meist Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs meist

Where the eye mixes meiste and meisten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. meiste runs 6 letters (CVVCCV) against meisten's 7 (CVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
meiste
7 ch
meisten

Look-alike desk: meiste vs meisten

A purely visual mix-up. meiste ([ˈmaɪ̯stə]) and meisten ([ˈmaɪ̯stn̩]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “meiste” sits inside “meisten”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6566, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

meiste is recorded at frequency rank #6,087, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈmaɪ̯stə]. meisten is at rank #479, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈmaɪ̯stn̩].

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 6566, this pair ranks #1,991,203 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of meiste vs meisten

Shared letters: eimst. Private to "meiste": -. Private to "meisten": n.

"meiste" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "meisten" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • meisteemiste · meiset · meisste · meistte · meitse · mesite · mieste · mmeiste
  • meistenemisten · meisetn · meissten · meistenn · meistne · meistten · meitsen · mesiten

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "meiste" and "meisten" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmaɪ̯stə] versus [ˈmaɪ̯stn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "meiste" or "meisten"?
"meisten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #479 in our German list, against #6,087 for "meiste". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "meiste" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "meisten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,991,203 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "meiste" and "meisten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "meiste 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 #1,991,203 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