DenkervsdünnerTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#14,039
“Denker” frequency rank
#13,580
“dünner” frequency rank
27619
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Denker dünner
Definition Person, die durch ihr philosophisches Denken bekannt geworden ist; ein denkender Mensch Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs dünn

Where the eye mixes Denker and dünner

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

6 ch
Denker
6 ch
dünner

Visual trap between Denker and dünner

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Denker is [ˈdɛŋkɐ] while dünner is [ˈdʏnɐ]. 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 27619, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Denker is recorded at frequency rank #14,039, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈdɛŋkɐ]. dünner is at rank #13,580, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈdʏnɐ].

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 27619, this pair ranks #1,798,803 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Denker vs dünner

Shared letters: denr. Private to "Denker": k. Private to "dünner": ü.

"Denker" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "dünner" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Denkerddenker · dekner · denekr · denkerr · denkker · denkre · dennker · dneker

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Denker" and "dünner" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Denker" is a noun and "dünner" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Denker" or "dünner"?
"dünner" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,580 in our German list, against #14,039 for "Denker". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Denker" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dünner" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,798,803 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Denker" and "dünner" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Düne vs dünner". 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 #1,798,803 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