Which to use
“melken” is a verb and “Melonen” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #27,412
- “melken” frequency rank
- #41,988
- “Melonen” frequency rank
- 69400
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | melken | Melonen |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Milch vom Milchvieh gewinnen | Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Melone |
Where the eye mixes melken and Melonen
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. melken runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against Melonen's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between melken and Melonen
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: melken is [ˈmɛlkn̩] while Melonen is [meˈloːnən]. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69400, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
melken is recorded at frequency rank #27,412, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈmɛlkn̩]. Melonen is at rank #41,988, tagged as anoun, pronounced [meˈloːnən].
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 69400, this pair ranks #477,800 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of melken vs Melonen
Shared letters: elmn. Private to "melken": k. Private to "Melonen": o.
"melken" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "Melonen" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "melken" for "Melonen" ever safe?
Which is more common, "melken" or "Melonen"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "melken" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Melonen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #477,800 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "melken" and "Melonen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "melken vs Milben". 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 #477,800 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.