meldenvsmordenWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,816
“melden” frequency rank
#11,710
“morden” frequency rank
13526
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature melden morden
Definition ein Ereignis (beispielsweise einem Vorgesetzten oder einer offiziellen Stelle) berichten jemanden vorsätzlich töten, einen Mord verüben

Where the eye mixes melden and morden

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. melden and morden follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
melden
6 ch
morden

Why the eye confuses melden with morden

A purely visual mix-up. melden ([ˈmɛldn̩]) and morden ([ˈmɔʁdn̩]) 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 13526, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

melden is recorded at frequency rank #1,816, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈmɛldn̩]. morden is at rank #11,710, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈmɔʁdn̩].

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 13526, this pair ranks #1,957,432 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of melden vs morden

Shared letters: demn. Private to "melden": l. Private to "morden": or.

"melden" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "morden" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • melden ← emlden · medlen · meldden · meldenn · meldne · meledn · mellden · mleden
  • morden ← mmorden · mordden · mordenn · mordne · moredn · morrden · mroden · omrden

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "melden" and "morden" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmɛldn̩] versus [ˈmɔʁdn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "melden" or "morden" show up more?
"melden" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,816 in our German list, against #11,710 for "morden". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "melden" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "morden" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,957,432 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "melden" and "morden" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maroden vs morden". 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 #1,957,432 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