MietervsMutterWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#5,104
“Mieter” frequency rank
#470
“Mutter” frequency rank
5574
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Mieter Mutter
Definition Person, die eine Sache mietet weiblicher Elternteil, der seine Kinder aufzieht und versorgt; Frau, welche ein oder mehrere Kinder geboren hat

Where the eye mixes Mieter and Mutter

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

6 ch
Mieter
6 ch
Mutter

Visual trap between Mieter and Mutter

A purely visual mix-up. Mieter ([ˈmiːtɐ]) and Mutter ([ˈmʊtɐ]) 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 5574, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Mieter is recorded at frequency rank #5,104, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmiːtɐ]. Mutter is at rank #470, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmʊtɐ].

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 5574, this pair ranks #1,994,354 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Mieter vs Mutter

Shared letters: emrt. Private to "Mieter": i. Private to "Mutter": u.

"Mieter" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "Mutter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Mieterimeter · meiter · mieetr · mieterr · mietre · mietter · miteer · mmieter
  • Muttermmutter · mtuter · muter · mutetr · mutterr · muttre · umtter

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Mieter" for "Mutter" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmiːtɐ] versus [ˈmʊtɐ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "Mieter" or "Mutter" show up more?
"Mutter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #470 in our German list, against #5,104 for "Mieter". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Mieter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Mutter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,994,354 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Mieter" and "Mutter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Mieter 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 #1,994,354 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