murrvsMuteWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: murr is a verb, Mute is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“murr” is a verb and “Mute” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#27,856
“murr” frequency rank
#40,098
“Mute” frequency rank
67954
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature murr Mute
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs murren Variante für den Dativ Singular des Substantivs Mut

Where the eye mixes murr and Mute

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. murr (CVCC) and Mute (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
murr
4 ch
Mute

Why the eye confuses murr with Mute

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: murr is [mʊʁ] while Mute is [ˈmuːtə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67954, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

murr is recorded at frequency rank #27,856, classified as averb, pronounced [mʊʁ]. Mute is at rank #40,098, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmuːtə].

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 67954, this pair ranks #523,371 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of murr vs Mute

Shared letters: mu. Private to "murr": r. Private to "Mute": et.

"murr" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "Mute" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • murr ← mmurr · mrur · umrr
  • Mute ← mmute · mtue · muet · umte

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "murr" and "Mute" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "murr" is a verb and "Mute" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "murr" or "Mute" show up more?
"murr" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,856 in our German list, against #40,098 for "Mute". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "murr" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Mute" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #523,371 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "murr" and "Mute" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Matze vs Mute". 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 #523,371 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