mmevsModeTell them apart

Which to use

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

#46,851
“mme” frequency rank
#3,331
“Mode” frequency rank
50182
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mme Mode
Definition Mutter Brauch, Gewohnheit, Sitte

Where the eye mixes mme and Mode

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
mme
4 ch
Mode

Why the eye confuses mme with Mode

A purely visual mix-up. mme ([m̩mɛ]) and Mode ([ˈmoːdə]) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50182, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mme is recorded at frequency rank #46,851, classified as anoun, pronounced [m̩mɛ]. Mode is at rank #3,331, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmoːdə].

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 50182, this pair ranks #1,183,495 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mme vs Mode

Shared letters: em. Private to "mme": -. Private to "Mode": do.

"mme" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "Mode" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Modemdoe · mmode · modde · moed · omde

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mme" and "Mode" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([m̩mɛ] versus [ˈmoːdə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "mme" or "Mode" show up more?
"Mode" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,331 in our German list, against #46,851 for "mme". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Mode" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,183,495 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mme" and "Mode" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Memel vs mme". 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 #1,183,495 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