anisvsantikTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#33,432
“anis” frequency rank
#35,057
“antik” frequency rank
68489
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature anis antik
Definition Anis die Antike betreffend, zu ihr gehörend, aus ihr stammend

Where the eye mixes anis and antik

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. anis runs 4 letters (VCVC) against antik's 5 (VCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
anis
5 ch
antik

Look-alike desk: anis vs antik

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: anis is [a.ni(s)] while antik is [anˈtiːk]. 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 68489, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

anis is recorded at frequency rank #33,432, classified as anoun, pronounced [a.ni(s)]. antik is at rank #35,057, tagged as anadj, pronounced [anˈtiːk].

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 68489, this pair ranks #506,096 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of anis vs antik

Shared letters: ain. Private to "anis": s. Private to "antik": kt.

"anis" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "antik" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • anis ← ains · aniss · annis · ansi · nais
  • antik ← anitk · anntik · antikk · antki · anttik · atnik · natik

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "anis" for "antik" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "anis" is a noun and "antik" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "anis" or "antik" show up more?
"anis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,432 in our German list, against #35,057 for "antik". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "anis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "antik" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #506,096 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "anis" and "antik" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "anis vs avis". 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 #506,096 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