Which to use
“blade” is an adjective and “brake” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #21,552
- “blade” frequency rank
- #36,847
- “brake” frequency rank
- 58399
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | blade | brake |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs blad | Vorrichtung, um ein Fahrzeug zu Verlangsamen oder zum Halten zu bringen |
Where the eye mixes blade and brake
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. blade and brake follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses blade with brake
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: blade is [ˈblaːdə] while brake is [bɹeɪk]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58399, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
blade is recorded at frequency rank #21,552, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈblaːdə]. brake is at rank #36,847, tagged as anoun, pronounced [bɹeɪk].
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 58399, this pair ranks #864,286 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of blade vs brake
Shared letters: abe. Private to "blade": dl. Private to "brake": kr.
"blade" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "brake" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "blade" and "brake" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary German text, does "blade" or "brake" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "blade" and "brake" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "blade" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "brake" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #864,286 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "blade" and "brake" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "brake vs bryce". 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 #864,286 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.