Which to use
“melk” is an adjective and “merle” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #41,987
- “melk” frequency rank
- #28,761
- “merle” frequency rank
- 70748
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | melk | merle |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Milch gebend | Amsel |
Where the eye mixes melk and merle
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between melk and merle
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: melk is [mɛlk] while merle is [mɛʁl]. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70748, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
melk is recorded at frequency rank #41,987, classified as anadj, pronounced [mɛlk]. merle is at rank #28,761, tagged as anoun, pronounced [mɛʁl].
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 70748, this pair ranks #436,982 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of melk vs merle
Shared letters: elm. Private to "melk": k. Private to "merle": r.
"melk" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "merle" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "melk" and "merle" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "melk" vs "merle" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "melk" and "merle" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "melk" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "merle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #436,982 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "melk" and "merle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Mals vs melk". 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 #436,982 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.