8vsachtConfusable pair

Which to use

“8” and “acht” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#287
“8” frequency rank
#899
“acht” frequency rank
1186
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature 8 acht
Definition eine arabische Ziffer (ein Zahlzeichen), welche die Zahl Acht darstellt die Kardinalzahl zwischen sieben und neun

Same sound, different letters: 8 vs acht

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. No shared letter run - the mix-up is pure homophony. 8 runs 0 letters () against acht's 4 (VCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

1 ch
8
4 ch
acht

Same sound, different spelling - 8 / acht

This is the hard kind. 8 and acht are pronounced identically ([axt]) and both work as anum. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 3 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1186, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

8 is recorded at frequency rank #287, classified as anum, pronounced [axt]. acht is at rank #899, tagged as anum, pronounced [axt].

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 1186, this pair ranks #2,004,767 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of 8 vs acht

Shared letters: none. Private to "8": -. Private to "acht": acht.

"8" · 0 letters · shape  ·  "acht" · 4 letters · shape VCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • acht ← accht · achht · achtt · acth · ahct · caht

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "8" and "acht" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same ([axt]), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "8" or "acht"?
"8" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #287 in our German list, against #899 for "acht". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "8" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "acht" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,004,767 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "8" and "acht" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acht vs Ahr". 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 #2,004,767 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list