dickevsdickemWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: dicke is a particle, dickem is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#3,029
“dicke” frequency rank
#39,285
“dickem” frequency rank
42314
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dicke dickem
Definition in reichlichem Maße, mehr als genügend; in hohem Maße Dativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs dick

Where the eye mixes dicke and dickem

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. dicke runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against dickem's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
dicke
6 ch
dickem

Why the eye confuses dicke with dickem

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dicke is [ˈdɪkə] while dickem is [ˈdɪkəm]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “dicke” sits inside “dickem”, and the parts of speech differ too (particle vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42314, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dicke is recorded at frequency rank #3,029, classified as aparticle, pronounced [ˈdɪkə]. dickem is at rank #39,285, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈdɪkəm].

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 42314, this pair ranks #1,453,221 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dicke vs dickem

Shared letters: cdeik. Private to "dicke": -. Private to "dickem": m.

"dicke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "dickem" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dicke ← dcike · ddicke · diccke · dicek · dickke · dikce · idcke
  • dickem ← dcikem · ddickem · dicckem · dicekm · dickemm · dickkem · dickme · dikcem

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dicke" for "dickem" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dicke" is a particle and "dickem" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "dicke" vs "dickem" - which ranks higher?
"dicke" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,029 in our German list, against #39,285 for "dickem". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dicke" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dickem" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,453,221 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dicke" and "dickem" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dickem vs dickere". 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 #1,453,221 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