Which to use
“menu” is a noun and “met” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #4,613
- “menu” frequency rank
- #853
- “met” frequency rank
- 5466
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | menu | met |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The details of the food to be served at a banquet; a bill of fare. | simple past and past participle of meet |
Where the eye mixes menu and met
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses menu with met
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: menu is /ˈmɛn.juː/ while met is /mɛt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5466, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
menu is recorded at frequency rank #4,613, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɛn.juː/. met is at rank #853, tagged as averb, pronounced /mɛt/.
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 5466, this pair ranks #515,230 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of menu vs met
Shared letters: em. Private to "menu": nu. Private to "met": t.
"menu" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "met" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- menu ← emnu · mennu · meun · mmenu · mneu
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "menu" for "met" ever safe?
Which is more common, "menu" or "met"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "menu" and "met" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "menu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "met" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #515,230 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "menu" and "met" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mela vs menu". 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 #515,230 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.