MetervsMisterConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#753
“Meter” frequency rank
#14,129
“Mister” frequency rank
14882
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Meter Mister
Definition SI-Basiseinheit für die Länge; eine Strecke, die das Licht im Vakuum in 1/299.792.458 Sekunden zurücklegt in englischsprachigen Ländern höfliche Anrede vor dem Namen

Where the eye mixes Meter and Mister

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

5 ch
Meter
6 ch
Mister

Look-alike desk: Meter vs Mister

A purely visual mix-up. Meter ([ˈmeːtɐ]) and Mister ([ˈmɪstɐ]) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14882, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Meter is recorded at frequency rank #753, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmeːtɐ]. Mister is at rank #14,129, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmɪstɐ].

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 14882, this pair ranks #1,948,027 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Meter vs Mister

Shared letters: emrt. Private to "Meter": -. Private to "Mister": is.

"Meter" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "Mister" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Meteremter · meetr · meterr · metre · metter · mmeter · mteer
  • Misterimster · misetr · misster · misterr · mistre · mistter · mitser · mmister

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Meter" and "Mister" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmeːtɐ] versus [ˈmɪstɐ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "Meter" or "Mister" show up more?
"Meter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #753 in our German list, against #14,129 for "Mister". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "Meter" and "Mister" 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 "Mister" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,948,027 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Meter" and "Mister" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mietet vs Mister". 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 #1,948,027 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