armevsarmesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,652
“arme” frequency rank
#11,005
“armes” frequency rank
12657
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature arme armes
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs arm Nominativ Singular Neutrum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs arm

Where the eye mixes arme and armes

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

4 ch
arme
5 ch
armes

Look-alike desk: arme vs armes

A purely visual mix-up. arme ([ˈaʁmə]) and armes ([ˈaʁməs]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “arme” sits inside “armes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12657, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

arme is recorded at frequency rank #1,652, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈaʁmə]. armes is at rank #11,005, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈaʁməs].

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 12657, this pair ranks #1,962,849 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of arme vs armes

Shared letters: aemr. Private to "arme": -. Private to "armes": s.

"arme" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "armes" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • arme ← amre · arem · armme · arrme · rame
  • armes ← amres · arems · armess · armmes · armse · arrmes · rames

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "arme" for "armes" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈaʁmə] versus [ˈaʁməs]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "arme" vs "armes" - which ranks higher?
"arme" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,652 in our German list, against #11,005 for "armes". 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 "arme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "armes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,962,849 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "arme" and "armes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "arma vs armes". 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 #1,962,849 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