Which to use
“Adaption” is a noun and “adaptive” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #23,404
- “Adaption” frequency rank
- #49,447
- “adaptive” frequency rank
- 72851
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Adaption | adaptive |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Anpassung oder Anpassungsvermögen | Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs adaptiv |
Where the eye mixes Adaption and adaptive
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between Adaption and adaptive
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Adaption is [adapˈt͡si̯oːn] while adaptive is [adapˈtiːvə]. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72851, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Adaption is recorded at frequency rank #23,404, classified as anoun, pronounced [adapˈt͡si̯oːn]. adaptive is at rank #49,447, tagged as anadj, pronounced [adapˈtiːvə].
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 72851, this pair ranks #376,833 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of Adaption vs adaptive
Shared letters: adipt. Private to "Adaption": no. Private to "adaptive": ev.
"Adaption" · 8 letters · shape VCVCCVVC · "adaptive" · 8 letters · shape VCVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Adaption" for "adaptive" ever safe?
Frequency check: "Adaption" vs "adaptive" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "Adaption" and "adaptive" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "Adaption" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "adaptive" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #376,833 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Adaption" and "adaptive" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Adaption vs addition". 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 #376,833 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.