miesvsmildConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#8,597
“mies” frequency rank
#18,330
“mild” frequency rank
26927
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mies mild
Definition auf verdrießlicher, ärgerlicher, ablehnender Art und Weise schlecht; wertlos, elend, übel nicht stark im Geschmack

Where the eye mixes mies and mild

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

4 ch
mies
4 ch
mild

Look-alike desk: mies vs mild

A purely visual mix-up. mies ([miːs]) and mild ([mɪlt]) 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 26927, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mies is recorded at frequency rank #8,597, classified as anadj, pronounced [miːs]. mild is at rank #18,330, tagged as anadj, pronounced [mɪlt].

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 26927, this pair ranks #1,810,101 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mies vs mild

Shared letters: im. Private to "mies": es. Private to "mild": dl.

"mies" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "mild" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • miesimes · meis · miess · mise · mmies
  • mildimld · midl · mildd · milld · mlid · mmild

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mies" and "mild" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([miːs] versus [mɪlt]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "mies" vs "mild" - which ranks higher?
"mies" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,597 in our German list, against #18,330 for "mild". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mies" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mild" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,810,101 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mies" and "mild" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mild vs Milfs". 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 #1,810,101 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