decktvsdickeWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: deckt is a verb, dicke is a particle, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“deckt” is a verb and “dicke” is a particle - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,452
“deckt” frequency rank
#3,029
“dicke” frequency rank
10481
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature deckt dicke
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs decken in reichlichem Maße, mehr als genügend; in hohem Maße

Where the eye mixes deckt and dicke

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

5 ch
deckt
5 ch
dicke

Visual trap between deckt and dicke

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: deckt is [dɛkt] while dicke is [ˈdɪkə]. 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 (verb vs particle), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10481, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

deckt is recorded at frequency rank #7,452, classified as averb, pronounced [dɛkt]. 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 10481, this pair ranks #1,974,904 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of deckt vs dicke

Shared letters: cdek. Private to "deckt": t. Private to "dicke": i.

"deckt" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "dicke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • decktdcekt · ddeckt · decckt · deckkt · decktt · dectk · dekct · edckt
  • dickedcike · ddicke · diccke · dicek · dickke · dikce · idcke

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "deckt" for "dicke" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "deckt" is a verb and "dicke" a particle, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "deckt" or "dicke"?
"dicke" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,029 in our German list, against #7,452 for "deckt". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "deckt" and "dicke" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "deckt" 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 #1,974,904 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "deckt" and "dicke" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "deckt 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 #1,974,904 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