MittevsMottoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#660
“Mitte” frequency rank
#2,984
“Motto” frequency rank
3644
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Mitte Motto
Definition Mittelpunkt, Zentrum eine – oft schlagwortartige – programmatische Aussage, die eine Person, Institution oder Veranstaltung charakterisieren oder prägen soll

Where the eye mixes Mitte and Motto

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

5 ch
Mitte
5 ch
Motto

Visual trap between Mitte and Motto

A purely visual mix-up. Mitte ([ˈmɪtə]) and Motto ([ˈmɔto]) 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 3644, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Mitte is recorded at frequency rank #660, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmɪtə]. Motto is at rank #2,984, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmɔto].

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 3644, this pair ranks #1,999,726 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Mitte vs Motto

Shared letters: mt. Private to "Mitte": ei. Private to "Motto": o.

"Mitte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Motto" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Mitteimtte · mite · mitet · mmitte · mtite
  • Mottommotto · motot · mtoto · omtto

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Mitte" for "Motto" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmɪtə] versus [ˈmɔto]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Mitte" vs "Motto" - which ranks higher?
"Mitte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #660 in our German list, against #2,984 for "Motto". 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 "Mitte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Motto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,999,726 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Mitte" and "Motto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Mette vs Motto". 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 #1,999,726 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