modernvsMörderinTell them apart

Quick tell: modern is a adjective, Mörderin is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“modern” is an adjective and “Mörderin” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,450
“modern” frequency rank
#49,102
“Mörderin” frequency rank
53552
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature modern Mörderin
Definition der Zeit entsprechend, neuzeitlich weibliche Person, die einen Mord begangen hat

Where the eye mixes modern and Mörderin

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. modern runs 6 letters (CVCVCC) against Mörderin's 8 (CVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
modern
8 ch
Mörderin

Why the eye confuses modern with Mörderin

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: modern is [moˈdɛʁn] while Mörderin is [ˈmœʁdəʁɪn]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53552, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

modern is recorded at frequency rank #4,450, classified as anadj, pronounced [moˈdɛʁn]. Mörderin is at rank #49,102, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmœʁdəʁɪn].

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 53552, this pair ranks #1,053,479 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of modern vs Mörderin

Shared letters: demnr. Private to "modern": o. Private to "Mörderin": iö.

"modern" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "Mörderin" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • modern ← mdoern · mmodern · moddern · modenr · modernn · moderrn · modren · moedrn

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "modern" for "Mörderin" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "modern" is an adjective and "Mörderin" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "modern" or "Mörderin" show up more?
"modern" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,450 in our German list, against #49,102 for "Mörderin". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "modern" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Mörderin" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,053,479 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "modern" and "Mörderin" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Mörderin vs Mordserie". 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 #1,053,479 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