MildevsmillsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#9,775
“Milde” frequency rank
#22,434
“mills” frequency rank
32209
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Milde mills
Definition die Charaktereigenschaft der Sanftmut Plural des Substantivs mill

Where the eye mixes Milde and mills

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

5 ch
Milde
5 ch
mills

Why the eye confuses Milde with mills

A purely visual mix-up. Milde ([ˈmɪldə]) and mills ([mɪlz]) 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 32209, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Milde is recorded at frequency rank #9,775, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmɪldə]. mills is at rank #22,434, tagged as anoun, pronounced [mɪlz].

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 32209, this pair ranks #1,712,419 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Milde vs mills

Shared letters: ilm. Private to "Milde": de. Private to "mills": s.

"Milde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "mills" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Mildeimlde · midle · mildde · miled · millde · mlide · mmilde
  • millsimlls · millss · mils · milsl · mlils · mmills

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Milde" and "mills" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmɪldə] versus [mɪlz]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Milde" or "mills"?
"Milde" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,775 in our German list, against #22,434 for "mills". 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 "Milde" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mills" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,712,419 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Milde" and "mills" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Milfs vs mills". 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 #1,712,419 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