melkvsMollWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: melk is a adjective, Moll is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#41,987
“melk” frequency rank
#11,293
“Moll” frequency rank
53280
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature melk Moll
Definition Milch gebend ein Tongeschlecht einer Klangverbindung, deren Charakteristikum eine kleine Terz im Verhältnis zum Grundton ist

Where the eye mixes melk and Moll

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
melk
4 ch
Moll

Visual trap between melk and Moll

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: melk is [mɛlk] while Moll is [mɔl]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53280, 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]. Moll is at rank #11,293, tagged as anoun, pronounced [mɔl].

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 53280, this pair ranks #1,064,179 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of melk vs Moll

Shared letters: lm. Private to "melk": ek. Private to "Moll": o.

"melk" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "Moll" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • melkemlk · mekl · melkk · mellk · mlek · mmelk
  • Mollmlol · mmoll · omll

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "melk" for "Moll" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "melk" is an adjective and "Moll" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "melk" or "Moll"?
"Moll" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,293 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.

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 "melk" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Moll" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,064,179 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "melk" and "Moll" 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 #1,064,179 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