milkvsMilzConfusable pair

Quick tell: milk is a verb, Milz is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“milk” is a verb and “Milz” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#34,262
“milk” frequency rank
#30,202
“Milz” frequency rank
64464
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature milk Milz
Definition 2. Person Singular Präsens Imperativ Aktiv des Verbs melken Organ zur Produktion von Abwehrstoffen und weißen Blutkörperchen, sowie zum Abbau von roten Blutkörperchen

Where the eye mixes milk and Milz

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. milk and Milz follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
milk
4 ch
Milz

Visual trap between milk and Milz

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: milk is [mɪlk] while Milz is [mɪlt͡s]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - k in “milk” becomes z in “Milz”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64464, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

milk is recorded at frequency rank #34,262, classified as averb, pronounced [mɪlk]. Milz is at rank #30,202, tagged as anoun, pronounced [mɪlt͡s].

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 64464, this pair ranks #640,635 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of milk vs Milz

Shared letters: ilm. Private to "milk": k. Private to "Milz": z.

"milk" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "Milz" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • milk ← imlk · mikl · milkk · millk · mlik · mmilk
  • Milz ← imlz · millz · milzz · mizl · mliz · mmilz

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "milk" and "Milz" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "milk" is a verb and "Milz" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "milk" or "Milz"?
"Milz" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,202 in our German list, against #34,262 for "milk". 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 "milk" and "Milz" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "milk" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Milz" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #640,635 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "milk" and "Milz" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Milfs vs milk". 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 #640,635 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