muvsmüdeWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: mu is a unknown, müde is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mu” is an unknown and “müde” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#18,336
“mu” frequency rank
#2,604
“müde” frequency rank
20940
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mu müde
Definition Genitiv Singular des Personalpronomens mina schläfrig, schlafbedürftig

Letter map: mu vs müde

Shared letters muted; letters that set mu and müde apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

2 ch
mu
4 ch
müde

Role in the sentence - mu and müde

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mu is anunknown and müdeanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20940, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mu is recorded at frequency rank #18,336, classified as anunknown, pronounced […]. müde is at rank #2,604, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈmyːdə].

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 20940, this pair ranks #1,892,007 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mu vs müde

Shared letters: m. Private to "mu": u. Private to "müde": deü.

"mu" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "müde" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mu" and "müde" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mu" is an unknown and "müde" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "mu" vs "müde" - which ranks higher?
"müde" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,604 in our German list, against #18,336 for "mu". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "mu" and "müde".

  • Full dictionary entry for "mu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "müde" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,892,007 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mu" and "müde" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mu vs puzzles". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,892,007 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