milevsMuteConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#42,680
“mile” frequency rank
#40,098
“Mute” frequency rank
82778
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mile Mute
Definition Meile Variante für den Dativ Singular des Substantivs Mut

Where the eye mixes mile and Mute

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. mile and Mute follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
mile
4 ch
Mute

Look-alike desk: mile vs Mute

A purely visual mix-up. mile ([maɪl]) and Mute ([ˈmuːtə]) 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 82778, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mile is recorded at frequency rank #42,680, classified as anoun, pronounced [maɪl]. Mute is at rank #40,098, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmuːtə].

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 82778, this pair ranks #151,139 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mile vs Mute

Shared letters: em. Private to "mile": il. Private to "Mute": tu.

"mile" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Mute" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mile ← imle · miel · mlie · mmile
  • Mute ← mmute · mtue · muet · umte

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mile" for "Mute" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([maɪl] versus [ˈmuːtə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "mile" or "Mute"?
"Mute" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #40,098 in our German list, against #42,680 for "mile". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "mile" and "Mute" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mile" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Mute" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #151,139 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mile" and "Mute" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mile 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 #151,139 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