Which to use
“malt” and “milt” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,964
- “malt” frequency rank
- #43,788
- “milt” frequency rank
- 60752
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | malt | milt |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Malted grain (sprouted grain) (usually barley), used in brewing and otherwise. | The spleen, especially of an animal bred for food. |
Where the eye mixes malt and milt
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: malt vs milt
A purely visual mix-up. malt (/mɒlt/) and milt (/mɪlt/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - a in “malt” becomes i in “milt”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60752, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
malt is recorded at frequency rank #16,964, classified as anoun, pronounced /mɒlt/. milt is at rank #43,788, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mɪlt/.
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 60752, this pair ranks #98,278 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of malt vs milt
Shared letters: lmt. Private to "malt": a. Private to "milt": i.
"malt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "milt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "malt" for "milt" ever safe?
Frequency check: "malt" vs "milt" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "malt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "milt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #98,278 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "malt" and "milt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mela vs milt". 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 #98,278 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.