applesvsappliedTell them apart

Quick tell: apples is a noun, applied is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“apples” is a noun and “applied” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#23,419
“apples” frequency rank
#36,184
“applied” frequency rank
59603
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature apples applied
Definition Plural des Substantivs apple Präteritum des Verbs apply

Letter map: apples vs applied

Shared letters muted; letters that set apples and applied apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

6 ch
apples
7 ch
applied

Part-of-speech tell for apples / applied

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: apples is anoun and appliedaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59603, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

apples is recorded at frequency rank #23,419, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. applied is at rank #36,184, tagged as averb, pronounced [əˈplaɪd].

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 59603, this pair ranks #818,325 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of apples vs applied

Shared letters: aelp. Private to "apples": s. Private to "applied": di.

"apples" · 6 letters · shape VCCCVC  ·  "applied" · 7 letters · shape VCCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • applesaples · aplpes · appels · appless · applles · applse · paples
  • appliedaplied · aplpied · appiled · appleid · applide · appliedd · appllied · paplied

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "apples" for "applied" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "apples" is a noun and "applied" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "apples" vs "applied" - which ranks higher?
"apples" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,419 in our German list, against #36,184 for "applied". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "apples" and "applied".

  • Full dictionary entry for "apples" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "applied" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #818,325 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "apples" and "applied" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "apples vs puzzles". 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 #818,325 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