AdlervsAnkerWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#4,853
“Adler” frequency rank
#11,001
“Anker” frequency rank
15854
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Adler Anker
Definition mehrere verschiedene größere Raubvögel, Greifvögel aus der Familie der Habichtartigen Eisenhaken an einer langen Kette zum Festlegen schwimmender Fahrzeuge am Fluss- oder Meeresboden

Where the eye mixes Adler and Anker

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Adler
5 ch
Anker

Visual trap between Adler and Anker

A purely visual mix-up. Adler ([ˈaːdlɐ]) and Anker ([ˈaŋkɐ]) 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 15854, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Adler is recorded at frequency rank #4,853, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈaːdlɐ]. Anker is at rank #11,001, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈaŋkɐ].

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 15854, this pair ranks #1,940,621 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Adler vs Anker

Shared letters: aer. Private to "Adler": dl. Private to "Anker": kn.

"Adler" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "Anker" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Adleraddler · adelr · adlerr · adller · adlre · alder · daler
  • Ankerakner · anekr · ankerr · ankker · ankre · annker · naker

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Adler" and "Anker" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈaːdlɐ] versus [ˈaŋkɐ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "Adler" or "Anker" show up more?
"Adler" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,853 in our German list, against #11,001 for "Anker". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "Adler" and "Anker" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Adler" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Anker" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,940,621 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Adler" and "Anker" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Anker vs answer". 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 #1,940,621 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