AlarmvsAlbumWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#5,793
“Alarm” frequency rank
#1,500
“Album” frequency rank
7293
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Alarm Album
Definition zur Frühwarnung oder bei Eintritt eines Schadensereignisses erfolgender Ruf zur Bereitschaft oder zur Warnung vor Gefahr Behältnis, ursprünglich in Buchform, das mehrere Sammelobjekte enthalten kann

Where the eye mixes Alarm and Album

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

5 ch
Alarm
5 ch
Album

Look-alike desk: Alarm vs Album

A purely visual mix-up. Alarm ([aˈlaʁm]) and Album ([ˈalbʊm]) 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 7293, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Alarm is recorded at frequency rank #5,793, classified as anoun, pronounced [aˈlaʁm]. Album is at rank #1,500, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈalbʊm].

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 7293, this pair ranks #1,988,698 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Alarm vs Album

Shared letters: alm. Private to "Alarm": r. Private to "Album": bu.

"Alarm" · 5 letters · shape VCVCC  ·  "Album" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Alarmaalrm · alamr · alarmm · alarrm · allarm · alram · laarm
  • Albumablum · albbum · albmu · albumm · allbum · alubm · labum

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Alarm" for "Album" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([aˈlaʁm] versus [ˈalbʊm]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Alarm" or "Album"?
"Album" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,500 in our German list, against #5,793 for "Alarm". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Alarm" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Album" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,988,698 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Alarm" and "Album" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Alarm vs apart". 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 #1,988,698 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