Which to use
“mer” is a noun and “murr” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,134
- “mer” frequency rank
- #27,856
- “murr” frequency rank
- 37990
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mer | murr |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | das Meer, die See | 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs murren |
Where the eye mixes mer and murr
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses mer with murr
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mer is [mεːʀ] while murr is [mʊʁ]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37990, 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]. murr is at rank #27,856, tagged as averb, pronounced [mʊʁ].
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 37990, this pair ranks #1,575,774 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of mer vs murr
Shared letters: mr. Private to "mer": e. Private to "murr": u.
"mer" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "murr" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- murr ← mmurr · mrur · umrr
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "mer" for "murr" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "mer" or "murr" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "mer" and "murr" 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 "murr" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,575,774 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mer" and "murr" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mora vs murr". 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 #1,575,774 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.