dankevsdickeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#212
“danke” frequency rank
#3,029
“dicke” frequency rank
3241
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature danke dicke
Definition Wort, das man benutzt, um seinen Dank auszudrücken in reichlichem Maße, mehr als genügend; in hohem Maße

Where the eye mixes danke and dicke

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
danke
5 ch
dicke

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. danke ([ˈdaŋkə]) and dicke ([ˈdɪkə]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3241, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

danke is recorded at frequency rank #212, classified as aparticle, pronounced [ˈdaŋkə]. dicke is at rank #3,029, tagged as aparticle, pronounced [ˈdɪkə].

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 3241, this pair ranks #2,000,631 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of danke vs dicke

Shared letters: dek. Private to "danke": an. Private to "dicke": ci.

"danke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "dicke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dankeadnke · dakne · danek · dankke · dannke · ddanke · dnake
  • dickedcike · ddicke · diccke · dicek · dickke · dikce · idcke

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "danke" and "dicke" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈdaŋkə] versus [ˈdɪkə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "danke" or "dicke"?
"danke" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #212 in our German list, against #3,029 for "dicke". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "danke" and "dicke". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "danke" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dicke" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,000,631 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "danke" and "dicke" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dicke vs Docks". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list