metevsmuerteWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: mete is a verb, muerte is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mete” is a verb and “muerte” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,923
“mete” frequency rank
#305
“muerte” frequency rank
5228
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mete muerte
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de meter o de meterse. Fin de la vida, en especial de una persona

Where the eye mixes mete and muerte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

4 ch
mete
6 ch
muerte

Visual trap between mete and muerte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mete is [ˈmet̪e] while muerte is [ˈmweɾt̪e]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5228, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mete is recorded at frequency rank #4,923, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈmet̪e]. muerte is at rank #305, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmweɾt̪e].

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 5228, this pair ranks #314,169 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mete vs muerte

Shared letters: emt. Private to "mete": -. Private to "muerte": ru.

"mete" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "muerte" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • meteemte · mette · mmete · mtee
  • muertemeurte · mmuerte · mueret · muerrte · muertte · muetre · murete · umerte

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mete" and "muerte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mete" is a verb and "muerte" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "mete" or "muerte"?
"muerte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #305 in our Spanish list, against #4,923 for "mete". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "mete" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "muerte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #314,169 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mete" and "muerte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "math vs mete". 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 #314,169 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list