angevsargWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#28,513
“ange” frequency rank
#8,984
“arg” frequency rank
37497
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ange arg
Definition Religion: (zumeist mit Flügeln gedachtes) überirdisches Wesen, das als Bote Gottes fungiert böse, schlimm

Where the eye mixes ange and arg

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
ange
3 ch
arg

Look-alike desk: ange vs arg

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ange is [ɑ̃ːʒ] while arg is [aʁk]. 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 37497, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ange is recorded at frequency rank #28,513, classified as anoun, pronounced [ɑ̃ːʒ]. arg is at rank #8,984, tagged as anadj, pronounced [aʁk].

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 37497, this pair ranks #1,588,647 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ange vs arg

Shared letters: ag. Private to "ange": en. Private to "arg": r.

"ange" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "arg" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • angeagne · aneg · angge · annge · nage

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ange" and "arg" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ange" is a noun and "arg" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "ange" or "arg" show up more?
"arg" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,984 in our German list, against #28,513 for "ange". 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 "ange" and "arg" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ange" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "arg" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,588,647 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ange" and "arg" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ange 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 #1,588,647 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