Which to use
“criminal” and “critical” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #38,036
- “criminal” frequency rank
- #26,813
- “critical” frequency rank
- 64849
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | criminal | critical |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | kriminell, verbrecherisch | sehr wichtig, essentiell, bedenklich, ausschlaggebend, erheblich |
Letter map: criminal vs critical
Shared letters muted; letters that set criminal and critical apart highlighted. Shared run: 6.
Pair insight - criminal / critical
criminal and critical are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64849, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
criminal is recorded at frequency rank #38,036, classified as anadj, pronounced […]. critical is at rank #26,813, tagged as anadj, pronounced […].
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 64849, this pair ranks #627,110 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of criminal vs critical
Shared letters: acilr. Private to "criminal": mn. Private to "critical": t.
"criminal" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVC · "critical" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "criminal" for "critical" ever safe?
Frequency check: "criminal" vs "critical" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
You've compared "criminal" and "critical". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "criminal" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "critical" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #627,110 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "criminal" and "critical" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "criminal vs puzzles". 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 #627,110 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.