mildewvsmilleConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#34,592
“mildew” frequency rank
#37,096
“mille” frequency rank
71688
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mildew mille
Definition A growth of minute powdery or webby fungi, whitish or of different colors, found on various diseased or decaying substances. Alternative spelling of mill.

Letter map: mildew vs mille

Shared letters muted; letters that set mildew and mille apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. mildew runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against mille's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
mildew
5 ch
mille

Spelling & dictionary notes on mildew vs mille

mildew and mille are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71688, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mildew is recorded at frequency rank #34,592, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɪl.djuː/. mille is at rank #37,096, tagged as anoun.

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 71688, this pair ranks #45,816 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mildew vs mille

Shared letters: eilm. Private to "mildew": dw. Private to "mille": -.

"mildew" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "mille" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mildew ← imldew · midlew · milddew · mildeww · mildwe · miledw · milldew · mlidew
  • mille ← imlle · milel · mlile · mmille

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mildew" for "mille" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "mildew" vs "mille" - which ranks higher?
"mildew" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,592 in our English list, against #37,096 for "mille". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "mildew" and "mille".

  • Full dictionary entry for "mildew" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mille" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #45,816 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mildew" and "mille" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Mie vs mille". 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 #45,816 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