Which to use
“met” is a noun and “mis” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #631
- “met” frequency rank
- #339
- “mis” frequency rank
- 970
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | met | mis |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Unité de mesure du métabolisme énergétique, équivalant à 50 kilocalories par mètre carré de surface corporelle par heure, soit environ 58 watts par mètre carré. Son symbole est met. | Participe passé masculin de mettre. |
Where the eye mixes met and mis
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Visual trap between met and mis
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: met is \mɛt\ while mis is \mi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 970, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
met is recorded at frequency rank #631, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɛt\. mis is at rank #339, tagged as averb, pronounced \mi\.
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 970, this pair ranks #438,833 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of met vs mis
Shared letters: m. Private to "met": et. Private to "mis": is.
"met" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "mis" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "met" for "mis" ever safe?
Which is more common, "met" or "mis"?
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 "met" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #438,833 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "met" and "mis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "met vs MWh". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #438,833 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.