MettvsmintWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Mett is a noun, mint is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Mett” is a noun and “mint” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#28,763
“Mett” frequency rank
#13,898
“mint” frequency rank
42661
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Mett mint
Definition gewürztes Hackfleisch vom Schwein, manchmal auch mit Zwiebelstücken gemischt; kann roh gegessen oder wie Hackfleisch weiterverarbeitet werden von einem blassen Grün

Where the eye mixes Mett and mint

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Mett
4 ch
mint

Look-alike desk: Mett vs mint

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Mett is [mɛt] while mint is [mɪnt]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42661, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Mett is recorded at frequency rank #28,763, classified as anoun, pronounced [mɛt]. mint is at rank #13,898, tagged as anadj, pronounced [mɪnt].

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 42661, this pair ranks #1,442,489 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Mett vs mint

Shared letters: mt. Private to "Mett": e. Private to "mint": in.

"Mett" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "mint" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Mettemtt · mmett · mtet
  • mintimnt · minnt · mintt · mitn · mmint · mnit

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Mett" for "mint" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Mett" is a noun and "mint" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Mett" vs "mint" - which ranks higher?
"mint" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,898 in our German list, against #28,763 for "Mett". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Mett" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mint" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,442,489 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Mett" and "mint" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Mett vs mietet". 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 #1,442,489 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