AtomvsatomeTell them apart

Which to use

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

#10,806
“Atom” frequency rank
#23,016
“atome” frequency rank
33822
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Atom atome
Definition kleinstes, nicht mehr chemisch weiter teilbares Teilchen mit ausgeglichener elektrischer Ladung Atom

Same sound, different letters: Atom vs atome

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.

4 ch
Atom
5 ch
atome

Same sound, different spelling - Atom / atome

This is the hard kind. Atom and atome are pronounced identically ([aˈtoːm]) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “Atom” sits inside “atome”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33822, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Atom is recorded at frequency rank #10,806, classified as anoun, pronounced [aˈtoːm]. atome is at rank #23,016, tagged as anoun, pronounced [a.tom].

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 33822, this pair ranks #1,677,310 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Atom vs atome

Shared letters: amot. Private to "Atom": -. Private to "atome": e.

"Atom" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "atome" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Atomaotm · atmo · atomm · attom · taom
  • atomeaotme · atmoe · atoem · atomme · attome · taome

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Atom" and "atome" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same ([aˈtoːm]), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "Atom" vs "atome" - which ranks higher?
"Atom" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,806 in our German list, against #23,016 for "atome". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Atom" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "atome" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,677,310 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Atom" and "atome" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "atome vs Atze". 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 #1,677,310 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