miervsmilWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: mier is a noun, mil is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mier” is a noun and “mil” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#22,773
“mier” frequency rank
#379
“mil” frequency rank
23152
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mier mil
Definition Paz Diez veces ciento.

Where the eye mixes mier and mil

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
mier
3 ch
mil

Visual trap between mier and mil

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mier is /mi̯er/ while mil is [ˈmil]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23152, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mier is recorded at frequency rank #22,773, classified as anoun, pronounced /mi̯er/. mil is at rank #379, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈmil].

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 23152, this pair ranks #247,138 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mier vs mil

Shared letters: im. Private to "mier": er. Private to "mil": l.

"mier" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "mil" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mierimer · mierr · mire · mmier

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mier" for "mil" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mier" is a noun and "mil" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "mier" or "mil" show up more?
"mil" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #379 in our Spanish list, against #22,773 for "mier". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mier" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mil" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #247,138 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mier" and "mil" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mier vs mur". 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 #247,138 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