meuvsmphWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#48,897
“meu” frequency rank
#6,813
“mph” frequency rank
55710
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature meu mph
Definition Meum athamanticum, a European herb. Initialism of mile(s) per hour.

Where the eye mixes meu and mph

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
meu
3 ch
mph

Why the eye confuses meu with mph

A purely visual mix-up. meu (/ˈmjuː/) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55710, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

meu is recorded at frequency rank #48,897, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmjuː/. 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 55710, this pair ranks #131,601 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of meu vs mph

Shared letters: m. Private to "meu": eu. Private to "mph": hp.

"meu" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "mph" · 3 letters · shape CCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "meu" and "mph" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈmjuː/ versus /ˌɛmpiˈeɪt͡ʃ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "meu" or "mph" show up more?
"mph" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,813 in our English list, against #48,897 for "meu". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "meu" 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 #131,601 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "meu" and "mph" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "meu vs MMP". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #131,601 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