DeckevsdickerTell them apart

Quick tell: Decke is a noun, dicker is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Decke” is a noun and “dicker” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,513
“Decke” frequency rank
#7,744
“dicker” frequency rank
11257
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Decke dicker
Definition geschlossene Oberfläche Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs dick

Where the eye mixes Decke and dicker

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Decke
6 ch
dicker

Look-alike desk: Decke vs dicker

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Decke is [ˈdɛkə] while dicker is [ˈdɪkɐ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 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 11257, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Decke is recorded at frequency rank #3,513, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈdɛkə]. dicker is at rank #7,744, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈdɪkɐ].

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 11257, this pair ranks #1,970,833 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Decke vs dicker

Shared letters: cdek. Private to "Decke": -. Private to "dicker": ir.

"Decke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "dicker" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Deckedceke · ddecke · deccke · decek · deckke · dekce · edcke
  • dickerdciker · ddicker · diccker · dicekr · dickerr · dickker · dickre · dikcer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Decke" for "dicker" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Decke" is a noun and "dicker" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Decke" or "dicker" show up more?
"Decke" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,513 in our German list, against #7,744 for "dicker". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Decke" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dicker" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,970,833 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Decke" and "dicker" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Decke 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

Confusion rank #1,970,833 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