armevsarmutWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: arme is a adjective, armut is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#1,652
“arme” frequency rank
#4,181
“armut” frequency rank
5833
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature arme armut
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs arm Birne

Where the eye mixes arme and armut

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
arme
5 ch
armut

Why the eye confuses arme with armut

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: arme is [ˈaʁmə] while armut is [aɾˈmut]. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5833, 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]. armut is at rank #4,181, tagged as anoun, pronounced [aɾˈmut].

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 5833, this pair ranks #1,993,569 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of arme vs armut

Shared letters: amr. Private to "arme": e. Private to "armut": tu.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • armeamre · arem · armme · arrme · rame
  • armutamrut · armmut · armtu · armutt · arrmut · arumt · ramut

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "arme" and "armut" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "arme" is an adjective and "armut" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "arme" or "armut"?
"arme" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,652 in our German list, against #4,181 for "armut". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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 "armut" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,993,569 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "arme" and "armut" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ärmste vs armut". 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 #1,993,569 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