membervsmembersWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#20,666
“member” frequency rank
#46,139
“members” frequency rank
66805
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature member members
Definition Angehöriger, Mitglied Plural des Substantivs member

Where the eye mixes member and members

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. member runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against members's 7 (CVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
member
7 ch
members

Visual trap between member and members

A purely visual mix-up. member ([ˈmɛmbə]) and members ([ˈmɛmbəs]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “member” sits inside “members”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66805, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

member is recorded at frequency rank #20,666, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmɛmbə]. members is at rank #46,139, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmɛmbəs].

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 66805, this pair ranks #560,938 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of member vs members

Shared letters: bemr. Private to "member": -. Private to "members": s.

"member" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "members" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • member ← emmber · mebmer · membber · memberr · membre · memebr · memmber · mmeber
  • members ← emmbers · mebmers · membbers · memberrs · memberss · membesr · membres · memebrs

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "member" and "members" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmɛmbə] versus [ˈmɛmbəs]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "member" or "members" show up more?
"member" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,666 in our German list, against #46,139 for "members". 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 "member" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "members" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #560,938 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "member" and "members" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "members vs Messers". 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 #560,938 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