meldevsmüdeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: melde is a verb, müde is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“melde” is a verb and “müde” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,626
“melde” frequency rank
#2,604
“müde” frequency rank
8230
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature melde müde
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs melden schläfrig, schlafbedürftig

Where the eye mixes melde and müde

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

5 ch
melde
4 ch
müde

Look-alike desk: melde vs müde

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: melde is [ˈmɛldə] while müde is [ˈmyːdə]. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8230, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

melde is recorded at frequency rank #5,626, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈmɛldə]. müde is at rank #2,604, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈmyːdə].

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 8230, this pair ranks #1,985,107 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of melde vs müde

Shared letters: dem. Private to "melde": l. Private to "müde": ü.

"melde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "müde" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • meldeemlde · medle · meldde · meled · mellde · mlede · mmelde

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "melde" for "müde" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "melde" is a verb and "müde" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "melde" or "müde"?
"müde" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,604 in our German list, against #5,626 for "melde". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "melde" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "müde" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,985,107 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "melde" and "müde" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "melde 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 #1,985,107 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