Which to use
“Ballade” is a noun and “blade” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #19,835
- “Ballade” frequency rank
- #21,552
- “blade” frequency rank
- 41387
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Ballade | blade |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | ein langes Gedicht, welches in den meisten Fällen einen tragischen Ausgang hat | Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs blad |
Where the eye mixes Ballade and blade
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses Ballade with blade
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Ballade is [baˈlaːdə] while blade is [ˈblaːdə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41387, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Ballade is recorded at frequency rank #19,835, classified as anoun, pronounced [baˈlaːdə]. blade is at rank #21,552, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈblaːdə].
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 41387, this pair ranks #1,480,966 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of Ballade vs blade
Shared letters: abdel. Private to "Ballade": -. Private to "blade": -.
"Ballade" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV · "blade" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "Ballade" and "blade" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "Ballade" or "blade"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "Ballade" and "blade" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "Ballade" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "blade" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,480,966 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Ballade" and "blade" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "blade vs Blazer". 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 #1,480,966 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.