Which to use
“Mitte” and “Motte” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #660
- “Mitte” frequency rank
- #32,677
- “Motte” frequency rank
- 33337
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Mitte | Motte |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Mittelpunkt, Zentrum | Kleinschmetterling mit etwa 1 cm spannenden schmalen Flügeln, dessen Raupe unter anderem Wolle, Seide, Pelzwerk und Tapeten befällt |
Where the eye mixes Mitte and Motte
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Mitte and Motte follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses Mitte with Motte
A purely visual mix-up. Mitte ([ˈmɪtə]) and Motte ([ˈmɔtə]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - i in “Mitte” becomes o in “Motte”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33337, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Mitte is recorded at frequency rank #660, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmɪtə]. 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 33337, this pair ranks #1,688,133 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of Mitte vs Motte
Shared letters: emt. Private to "Mitte": i. Private to "Motte": o.
"Mitte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "Motte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "Mitte" and "Motte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "Mitte" or "Motte" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "Mitte" 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 #1,688,133 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Mitte" and "Motte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Möhre vs Motte". 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 #1,688,133 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.