Which to use
“metre” and “mitre” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,237
- “metre” frequency rank
- #45,521
- “mitre” frequency rank
- 55758
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | metre | mitre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The basic unit of length in the International System of Units (SI: Système International d'Unités), equal to the distance travelled by light in a vacuum in 1/299 792 458 seconds. The metre is equal to 39+⁴⁷⁄₁₂₇ (approximately 39.37) imperial inches. | A covering for the head, worn on solemn occasions by church dignitaries, which has been made in many forms, mostly recently a tall cap with two points or peaks. |
Where the eye mixes metre and mitre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. metre and mitre follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: metre vs mitre
A purely visual mix-up. metre (/ˈmiːtə/) and mitre (/ˈmaɪtəɹ/) 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 - e in “metre” becomes i in “mitre”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55758, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
metre is recorded at frequency rank #10,237, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmiːtə/. mitre is at rank #45,521, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmaɪtəɹ/.
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 55758, this pair ranks #131,218 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of metre vs mitre
Shared letters: emrt. Private to "metre": -. Private to "mitre": i.
"metre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "mitre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "metre" and "mitre" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "metre" or "mitre" show up more?
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 "metre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mitre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #131,218 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "metre" and "mitre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mitral vs mitre". 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 #131,218 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.