AdligevsAnlageTell them apart

Which to use

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

#36,163
“Adlige” frequency rank
#1,651
“Anlage” frequency rank
37814
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Adlige Anlage
Definition weibliche Angehörige des Adels persönliche Veranlagung (geistig, körperlich); Faktoren, die durch Erziehung nicht beeinflussbar sind

Where the eye mixes Adlige and Anlage

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Adlige and Anlage follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
Adlige
6 ch
Anlage

Why the eye confuses Adlige with Anlage

A purely visual mix-up. Adlige ([ˈaːdlɪɡə]) and Anlage ([ˈanˌlaːɡə]) 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 37814, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Adlige is recorded at frequency rank #36,163, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈaːdlɪɡə]. Anlage is at rank #1,651, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈanˌlaːɡə].

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 37814, this pair ranks #1,580,387 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Adlige vs Anlage

Shared letters: aegl. Private to "Adlige": di. Private to "Anlage": n.

"Adlige" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "Anlage" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Adlige ← addlige · adilge · adlgie · adlieg · adligge · adllige · aldige · dalige
  • Anlage ← alnage · analge · anlaeg · anlagge · anlgae · anllage · annlage · nalage

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Adlige" and "Anlage" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈaːdlɪɡə] versus [ˈanˌlaːɡə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Adlige" vs "Anlage" - which ranks higher?
"Anlage" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,651 in our German list, against #36,163 for "Adlige". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Adlige" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Anlage" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,580,387 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Adlige" and "Anlage" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "adelige vs Adlige". 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 #1,580,387 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