Which to use
“Defekte” is a noun and “direkte” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #17,554
- “Defekte” frequency rank
- #3,236
- “direkte” frequency rank
- 20790
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Defekte | direkte |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Variante für den Dativ Singular des Substantivs Defekt | Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs direkt |
Where the eye mixes Defekte and direkte
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. Defekte and direkte follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between Defekte and direkte
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Defekte is [deˈfɛktə] while direkte is [diˈʁɛktə]. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20790, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Defekte is recorded at frequency rank #17,554, classified as anoun, pronounced [deˈfɛktə]. direkte is at rank #3,236, tagged as anadj, pronounced [diˈʁɛktə].
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 20790, this pair ranks #1,893,726 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of Defekte vs direkte
Shared letters: dekt. Private to "Defekte": f. Private to "direkte": ir.
"Defekte" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV · "direkte" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Defekte" for "direkte" ever safe?
Which is more common, "Defekte" or "direkte"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "Defekte" and "direkte" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "Defekte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "direkte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,893,726 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Defekte" and "direkte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Defekte vs Detektei". 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 #1,893,726 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.