ärmstevsarmutWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#49,427
“ärmste” frequency rank
#4,181
“armut” frequency rank
53608
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ärmste armut
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Superlativs des Adjektivs arm Birne

Where the eye mixes ärmste and armut

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. ärmste runs 6 letters (VCCCCV) against armut's 5 (VCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
ärmste
5 ch
armut

Look-alike desk: ärmste vs armut

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ärmste is [ˈɛʁmstə] 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 53608, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ärmste is recorded at frequency rank #49,427, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈɛʁmstə]. 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 53608, this pair ranks #1,051,347 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ärmste vs armut

Shared letters: mrt. Private to "ärmste": esä. Private to "armut": au.

"ärmste" · 6 letters · shape VCCCCV  ·  "armut" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • armut ← amrut · armmut · armtu · armutt · arrmut · arumt · ramut

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ärmste" for "armut" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ärmste" is an adjective and "armut" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "ärmste" or "armut" show up more?
"armut" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,181 in our German list, against #49,427 for "ärmste". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "ärmste" 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 #1,051,347 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ärmste" and "armut" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ärmere vs ärmste". 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 #1,051,347 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