meutevsmouseWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#28,764
“meute” frequency rank
#31,186
“mouse” frequency rank
59950
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature meute mouse
Definition Gruppe zum gemeinsamen Jagen abgerichteter Hunde Nagetier (Plural 1); Maus

Where the eye mixes meute and mouse

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
meute
5 ch
mouse

Why the eye confuses meute with mouse

A purely visual mix-up. meute ([møːt]) and mouse ([maʊs]) 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 59950, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

meute is recorded at frequency rank #28,764, classified as anoun, pronounced [møːt]. mouse is at rank #31,186, tagged as anoun, pronounced [maʊs].

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 59950, this pair ranks #805,275 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of meute vs mouse

Shared letters: emu. Private to "meute": t. Private to "mouse": os.

"meute" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "mouse" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • meuteemute · metue · meuet · meutte · mmeute · muete
  • mousemmouse · mosue · moues · mousse · muose · omuse

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "meute" and "mouse" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([møːt] versus [maʊs]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "meute" or "mouse"?
"meute" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,764 in our German list, against #31,186 for "mouse". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "meute" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mouse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #805,275 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "meute" and "mouse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Mauser vs mouse". 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 #805,275 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