mightvsterraTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#32,168
“might” frequency rank
#16,564
“terra” frequency rank
48732
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature might terra
Definition Präteritum (simple past) des Verbs may Erd-

Letter map: might vs terra

Shared letters muted; letters that set might and terra apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. might (CVCCC) and terra (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
might
5 ch
terra

Role in the sentence - might and terra

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: might is averb and terraanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 5 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48732, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

might is recorded at frequency rank #32,168, classified as averb, pronounced […]. terra is at rank #16,564, tagged as anadj, pronounced […].

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 48732, this pair ranks #1,237,740 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of might vs terra

Shared letters: t. Private to "might": ghim. Private to "terra": aer.

"might" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "terra" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mightimght · mgiht · migght · mighht · mightt · migth · mihgt · mmight
  • terraetrra · tera · terar · trera · tterra

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "might" for "terra" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "might" is a verb and "terra" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "might" or "terra"?
"terra" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,564 in our German list, against #32,168 for "might". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "might" vs "terra" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "might" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "terra" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,237,740 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "might" and "terra" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "might vs puzzles". 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 #1,237,740 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