Which to use
“mirth” and “myth” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #46,070
- “mirth” frequency rank
- #6,269
- “myth” frequency rank
- 52339
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mirth | myth |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The emotion usually following humor and accompanied by laughter. | A traditional story which embodies a belief regarding some fact or phenomenon of experience, and in which often the forces of nature and of the soul are personified; a sacred narrative regarding a god, a hero, the origin of the world or of a people, etc. |
Where the eye mixes mirth and myth
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. mirth runs 5 letters (CVCCC) against myth's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: mirth vs myth
A purely visual mix-up. mirth (/mɜɹθ/) and myth (/mɪθ/) 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 52339, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mirth is recorded at frequency rank #46,070, classified as anoun, pronounced /mɜɹθ/. myth is at rank #6,269, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mɪθ/.
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 52339, this pair ranks #157,898 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of mirth vs myth
Shared letters: hmt. Private to "mirth": ir. Private to "myth": y.
"mirth" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC · "myth" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "mirth" and "myth" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "mirth" vs "myth" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "mirth" and "myth" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "mirth" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "myth" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #157,898 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mirth" and "myth" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mirth vs myrrh". 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 #157,898 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.