Which to use
“meme” and “mike” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,170
- “meme” frequency rank
- #1,665
- “mike” frequency rank
- 9835
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | meme | mike |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Any unit of (originally cultural) information, such as a practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another in a comparable way to the transmission of genes. | A microphone. |
Where the eye mixes meme and mike
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses meme with mike
A purely visual mix-up. meme (/miːm/) and mike (/ˈmaɪk/) 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 9835, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
meme is recorded at frequency rank #8,170, classified as anoun, pronounced /miːm/. mike is at rank #1,665, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmaɪk/.
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 9835, this pair ranks #495,342 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of meme vs mike
Shared letters: em. Private to "meme": -. Private to "mike": ik.
"meme" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "mike" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "meme" and "mike" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "meme" or "mike" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "meme" and "mike" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "meme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mike" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #495,342 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "meme" and "mike" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "meme vs MMP". 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 #495,342 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.