AmmevsarmyTell them apart

Which to use

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

#41,639
“Amme” frequency rank
#11,593
“army” frequency rank
53232
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Amme army
Definition eine ein fremdes Kind stillende und betreuende Frau Heer

Where the eye mixes Amme and army

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. Amme and army follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
Amme
4 ch
army

Why the eye confuses Amme with army

A purely visual mix-up. Amme ([ˈamə]) and army ([ˈɑːmɪ]) 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 53232, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Amme is recorded at frequency rank #41,639, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈamə]. army is at rank #11,593, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈɑːmɪ].

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 53232, this pair ranks #1,066,027 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Amme vs army

Shared letters: am. Private to "Amme": e. Private to "army": ry.

"Amme" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "army" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Amme ← ame · amem · mame
  • army ← armmy · armyy · arrmy · arym · ramy

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Amme" for "army" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈamə] versus [ˈɑːmɪ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "Amme" or "army" show up more?
"army" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,593 in our German list, against #41,639 for "Amme". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Amme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "army" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,066,027 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Amme" and "army" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Amme 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 #1,066,027 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