AkutevsALTEConfusable pair

Quick tell: Akute is a noun, ALTE is an abbrev, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Akute” is a noun and “ALTE” is an abbrev - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#14,488
“Akute” frequency rank
#498
“ALTE” frequency rank
14986
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Akute ALTE
Definition Variante für den Dativ Singular des Substantivs Akut Apparent Life Threatening Event = anscheinend lebensbedrohliches Ereignis (Bezeichnung eines akuten Zustandes bei Neugeborenen oder Säuglingen mit Apnoe, Zyanose oder Blässe, verändertem Muskeltonus sowie Bradykardie)

Where the eye mixes Akute and ALTE

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

5 ch
Akute
4 ch
ALTE

Visual trap between Akute and ALTE

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Akute is [aˈkuːtə] while ALTE is [ˈaltə]. 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 abbrev), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14986, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Akute is recorded at frequency rank #14,488, classified as anoun, pronounced [aˈkuːtə]. ALTE is at rank #498, tagged as anabbrev, pronounced [ˈaltə].

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 14986, this pair ranks #1,947,280 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Akute vs ALTE

Shared letters: aet. Private to "Akute": ku. Private to "ALTE": l.

"Akute" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "ALTE" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Akuteakkute · aktue · akuet · akutte · aukte · kaute
  • ALTEalet · allte · altte · atle

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Akute" and "ALTE" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Akute" is a noun and "ALTE" an abbrev, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Akute" or "ALTE" show up more?
"ALTE" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #498 in our German list, against #14,488 for "Akute". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Akute" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ALTE" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,947,280 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Akute" and "ALTE" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Akute vs azure". 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 #1,947,280 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