MetervsMetteWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#753
“Meter” frequency rank
#47,587
“Mette” frequency rank
48340
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Meter Mette
Definition SI-Basiseinheit für die Länge; eine Strecke, die das Licht im Vakuum in 1/299.792.458 Sekunden zurücklegt christliche Liturgie, die spätabends, nachts oder frühmorgens stattfindet

Where the eye mixes Meter and Mette

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Meter
5 ch
Mette

Visual trap between Meter and Mette

A purely visual mix-up. Meter ([ˈmeːtɐ]) and Mette ([ˈmɛtə]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48340, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Meter is recorded at frequency rank #753, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmeːtɐ]. Mette is at rank #47,587, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmɛtə].

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 48340, this pair ranks #1,252,124 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Meter vs Mette

Shared letters: emt. Private to "Meter": r. Private to "Mette": -.

"Meter" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "Mette" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Meteremter · meetr · meterr · metre · metter · mmeter · mteer
  • Metteemtte · metet · mmette · mtete

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Meter" and "Mette" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmeːtɐ] versus [ˈmɛtə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Meter" vs "Mette" - which ranks higher?
"Meter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #753 in our German list, against #47,587 for "Mette". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "Meter" and "Mette" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Meter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Mette" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,252,124 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Meter" and "Mette" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Matze 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 #1,252,124 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