mmevsmotWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#46,851
“mme” frequency rank
#42,693
“mot” frequency rank
89544
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mme mot
Definition Mutter Wort

Where the eye mixes mme and mot

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. mme (CCV) and mot (CVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

3 ch
mme
3 ch
mot

Why the eye confuses mme with mot

A purely visual mix-up. mme ([m̩mɛ]) and mot ([mo]) 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 89544, 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]. mot is at rank #42,693, tagged as anoun, pronounced [mo].

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 89544, this pair ranks #56,118 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mme vs mot

Shared letters: m. Private to "mme": e. Private to "mot": ot.

"mme" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "mot" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mme" for "mot" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([m̩mɛ] versus [mo]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "mme" or "mot"?
"mot" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #42,693 in our German list, against #46,851 for "mme". 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 "mme" and "mot" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mot" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #56,118 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mme" and "mot" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Memel vs mme". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #56,118 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