Which to use
“mill” and “mine” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #19,602
- “mill” frequency rank
- #2,885
- “mine” frequency rank
- 22487
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mill | mine |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Moulin. | Endroit d’où l’on extrait le minerai, par opposition aux carrières. Elles peuvent être souterraines ou à ciel ouvert. |
Where the eye mixes mill and mine
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses mill with mine
A purely visual mix-up. mill (\mɪl\) and mine (\min\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22487, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mill is recorded at frequency rank #19,602, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɪl\. mine is at rank #2,885, tagged as anoun, pronounced \min\.
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 22487, this pair ranks #357,721 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of mill vs mine
Shared letters: im. Private to "mill": l. Private to "mine": en.
"mill" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "mine" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "mill" and "mine" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "mill" vs "mine" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "mill" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #357,721 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mill" and "mine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mill vs mito". 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 #357,721 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.