melkvsmlTell them apart

Quick tell: melk is a adjective, ml is an abbrev, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“melk” is an adjective and “ml” is an abbrev - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#41,987
“melk” frequency rank
#8,106
“ml” frequency rank
50093
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature melk ml
Definition Milch gebend Milliliter

Letter map: melk vs ml

Shared letters muted; letters that set melk and ml apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
melk
2 ch
ml

Grammar separator: melk vs ml

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: melk is anadjective and mlanabbrev. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50093, 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]. ml is at rank #8,106, tagged as anabbrev.

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 50093, this pair ranks #1,186,899 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of melk vs ml

Shared letters: lm. Private to "melk": ek. Private to "ml": -.

"melk" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "ml" · 2 letters · shape CC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • melkemlk · mekl · melkk · mellk · mlek · mmelk

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "melk" and "ml" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "melk" is an adjective and "ml" an abbrev, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "melk" vs "ml" - which ranks higher?
"ml" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,106 in our German list, against #41,987 for "melk". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "melk" vs "ml" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "melk" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ml" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,186,899 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "melk" and "ml" 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 #1,186,899 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