meshvsmphTell them apart

Which to use

“mesh” and “mph” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#10,401
“mesh” frequency rank
#6,813
“mph” frequency rank
17214
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mesh mph
Definition A structure made of connected strands of metal, fiber, or other flexible/ductile material, with evenly spaced openings between them. Initialism of mile(s) per hour.

Where the eye mixes mesh and mph

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
mesh
3 ch
mph

Visual trap between mesh and mph

A purely visual mix-up. mesh (/mɛʃ/) and mph (/ˌɛmpiˈeɪt͡ʃ/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17214, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mesh is recorded at frequency rank #10,401, classified as anoun, pronounced /mɛʃ/. mph is at rank #6,813, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˌɛmpiˈeɪt͡ʃ/.

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 17214, this pair ranks #452,876 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mesh vs mph

Shared letters: hm. Private to "mesh": es. Private to "mph": p.

"mesh" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "mph" · 3 letters · shape CCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • meshemsh · mehs · meshh · messh · mmesh · mseh

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mesh" for "mph" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/mɛʃ/ versus /ˌɛmpiˈeɪt͡ʃ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "mesh" vs "mph" - which ranks higher?
"mph" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,813 in our English list, against #10,401 for "mesh". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "mesh" and "mph" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mesh" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mph" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #452,876 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mesh" and "mph" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mesh vs MGS". 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 #452,876 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list