AdelevsadeligeTell them apart

Quick tell: Adele is a name, adelige is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Adele” is a name and “adelige” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#18,148
“Adele” frequency rank
#36,775
“adelige” frequency rank
54923
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Adele adelige
Definition weiblicher Vorname Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs adelig

Where the eye mixes Adele and adelige

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Adele
7 ch
adelige

Look-alike desk: Adele vs adelige

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Adele is [aˈdeːlə] while adelige is [ˈaːdəlɪɡə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54923, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Adele is recorded at frequency rank #18,148, classified as aname, pronounced [aˈdeːlə]. adelige is at rank #36,775, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈaːdəlɪɡə].

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 54923, this pair ranks #999,672 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Adele vs adelige

Shared letters: adel. Private to "Adele": -. Private to "adelige": gi.

"Adele" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "adelige" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Adeleaddele · adeel · adelle · adlee · aedle · daele
  • adeligeaddelige · adeilge · adelgie · adelieg · adeligge · adellige · adleige · aedlige

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Adele" for "adelige" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Adele" is a name and "adelige" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Adele" or "adelige" show up more?
"Adele" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,148 in our German list, against #36,775 for "adelige". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Adele" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "adelige" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #999,672 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Adele" and "adelige" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Adelaide vs adelige". 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 #999,672 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