MottovsmouthTell them apart

Which to use

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

#2,984
“Motto” frequency rank
#40,096
“mouth” frequency rank
43080
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Motto mouth
Definition eine – oft schlagwortartige – programmatische Aussage, die eine Person, Institution oder Veranstaltung charakterisieren oder prägen soll Mund

Where the eye mixes Motto and mouth

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

5 ch
Motto
5 ch
mouth

Look-alike desk: Motto vs mouth

A purely visual mix-up. Motto ([ˈmɔto]) and mouth ([maʊθ]) 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 43080, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Motto is recorded at frequency rank #2,984, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmɔto]. mouth is at rank #40,096, tagged as anoun, pronounced [maʊθ].

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 43080, this pair ranks #1,429,238 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Motto vs mouth

Shared letters: mot. Private to "Motto": -. Private to "mouth": hu.

"Motto" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "mouth" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Mottommotto · motot · mtoto · omtto
  • mouthmmouth · motuh · mouht · mouthh · moutth · muoth · omuth

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Motto" for "mouth" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmɔto] versus [maʊθ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Motto" or "mouth"?
"Motto" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,984 in our German list, against #40,096 for "mouth". 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 "Motto" and "mouth" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Motto" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mouth" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,429,238 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Motto" and "mouth" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "month vs mouth". 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 #1,429,238 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