AknevsaloneTell them apart

Quick tell: Akne is a noun, alone is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Akne” is a noun and “alone” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#30,905
“Akne” frequency rank
#22,246
“alone” frequency rank
53151
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Akne alone
Definition krankhafte Veränderung der Haut mit Bildung entzündlicher Pusteln allein

Where the eye mixes Akne and alone

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

4 ch
Akne
5 ch
alone

Visual trap between Akne and alone

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Akne is [ˈaknə] while alone is [əˈləʊn]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53151, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Akne is recorded at frequency rank #30,905, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈaknə]. alone is at rank #22,246, tagged as anadj, pronounced [əˈləʊn].

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 53151, this pair ranks #1,069,216 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Akne vs alone

Shared letters: aen. Private to "Akne": k. Private to "alone": lo.

"Akne" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "alone" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Akneaken · akkne
  • aloneallone · alnoe · aloen · alonne · aolne · laone

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Akne" for "alone" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Akne" is a noun and "alone" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Akne" or "alone" show up more?
"alone" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,246 in our German list, against #30,905 for "Akne". 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 "Akne" and "alone" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Akne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "alone" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,069,216 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Akne" and "alone" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Akne vs Atze". 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 #1,069,216 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