Which to use
“Alarm” is a noun and “altem” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,793
- “Alarm” frequency rank
- #16,081
- “altem” frequency rank
- 21874
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Alarm | altem |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | zur Frühwarnung oder bei Eintritt eines Schadensereignisses erfolgender Ruf zur Bereitschaft oder zur Warnung vor Gefahr | Dativ Singular Maskulinum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs alt |
Where the eye mixes Alarm and altem
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Alarm (VCVCC) and altem (VCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: Alarm vs altem
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Alarm is [aˈlaʁm] while altem is [ˈaltəm]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21874, 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]. altem is at rank #16,081, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈaltəm].
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 21874, this pair ranks #1,881,120 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of Alarm vs altem
Shared letters: alm. Private to "Alarm": r. Private to "altem": et.
"Alarm" · 5 letters · shape VCVCC · "altem" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "Alarm" and "altem" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "Alarm" or "altem"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "Alarm" and "altem" 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 "altem" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,881,120 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Alarm" and "altem" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "altem vs altert". 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 #1,881,120 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.