mittvsMotteConfusable pair

Quick tell: mitt is a unknown, Motte is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mitt” is an unknown and “Motte” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#34,812
“mitt” frequency rank
#32,677
“Motte” frequency rank
67489
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mitt Motte
Definition Nominativ Singular Neutrum des Possessivpronomens minn Kleinschmetterling mit etwa 1 cm spannenden schmalen Flügeln, dessen Raupe unter anderem Wolle, Seide, Pelzwerk und Tapeten befällt

Where the eye mixes mitt and Motte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. mitt runs 4 letters (CVCC) against Motte's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
mitt
5 ch
Motte

Look-alike desk: mitt vs Motte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mitt is [mɪhtʰ] while Motte is [ˈmɔtə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (unknown vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67489, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mitt is recorded at frequency rank #34,812, classified as anunknown, pronounced [mɪhtʰ]. Motte is at rank #32,677, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmɔtə].

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 67489, this pair ranks #538,549 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mitt vs Motte

Shared letters: mt. Private to "mitt": i. Private to "Motte": eo.

"mitt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "Motte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mitt ← imtt · mmitt · mtit
  • Motte ← mmotte · mote · motet · mtote · omtte

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mitt" and "Motte" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mitt" is an unknown and "Motte" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "mitt" or "Motte" show up more?
"Motte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,677 in our German list, against #34,812 for "mitt". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mitt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Motte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #538,549 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mitt" and "Motte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mietet vs mitt". 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 #538,549 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