Which to use
“mer” and “merle” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,134
- “mer” frequency rank
- #28,761
- “merle” frequency rank
- 38895
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mer | merle |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | das Meer, die See | Amsel |
Where the eye mixes mer and merle
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: mer vs merle
A purely visual mix-up. mer ([mεːʀ]) and merle ([mɛʁl]) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “mer” sits inside “merle”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38895, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mer is recorded at frequency rank #10,134, classified as anoun, pronounced [mεːʀ]. 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 38895, this pair ranks #1,551,761 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of mer vs merle
Shared letters: emr. Private to "mer": -. Private to "merle": l.
"mer" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "merle" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- merle ← emrle · melre · merel · merlle · merrle · mmerle · mrele
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "mer" and "merle" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "mer" or "merle" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "mer" and "merle" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "mer" 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 #1,551,761 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mer" and "merle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "merle vs Mette". 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 #1,551,761 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.