mietvsmildWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: miet is a verb, mild is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“miet” is a verb and “mild” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#29,239
“miet” frequency rank
#18,330
“mild” frequency rank
47569
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature miet mild
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs mieten nicht stark im Geschmack

Where the eye mixes miet and mild

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

4 ch
miet
4 ch
mild

Visual trap between miet and mild

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: miet is [miːt] while mild is [mɪlt]. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47569, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

miet is recorded at frequency rank #29,239, classified as averb, pronounced [miːt]. 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 47569, this pair ranks #1,279,728 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of miet vs mild

Shared letters: im. Private to "miet": et. Private to "mild": dl.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mietimet · meit · miett · mmiet
  • mildimld · midl · mildd · milld · mlid · mmild

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "miet" for "mild" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "miet" is a verb and "mild" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "miet" vs "mild" - which ranks higher?
"mild" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,330 in our German list, against #29,239 for "miet". 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 "miet" 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 #1,279,728 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "miet" and "mild" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "miet 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 #1,279,728 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