dickenvsdickereConfusable pair

Quick tell: dicken is a verb, dickere is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dicken” is a verb and “dickere” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,416
“dicken” frequency rank
#43,808
“dickere” frequency rank
48224
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dicken dickere
Definition durch Zugabe von Geliermittel, Mehl oder Ähnlichem etwas Flüssiges (besonders Speisen) dickflüssiger, zähflüssiger, fester machen Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Komparativs des Adjektivs dick

Where the eye mixes dicken and dickere

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. dicken runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against dickere's 7 (CVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
dicken
7 ch
dickere

Visual trap between dicken and dickere

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dicken is [ˈdɪkn̩] while dickere is [ˈdɪkəʁə]. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48224, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dicken is recorded at frequency rank #4,416, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈdɪkn̩]. dickere is at rank #43,808, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈdɪkəʁə].

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 48224, this pair ranks #1,256,313 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dicken vs dickere

Shared letters: cdeik. Private to "dicken": n. Private to "dickere": r.

"dicken" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "dickere" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dicken ← dciken · ddicken · diccken · dicekn · dickenn · dickken · dickne · dikcen
  • dickere ← dcikere · ddickere · dicckere · dicekre · dickeer · dickerre · dickkere · dickree

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dicken" for "dickere" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dicken" is a verb and "dickere" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "dicken" or "dickere" show up more?
"dicken" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,416 in our German list, against #43,808 for "dickere". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dicken" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dickere" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,256,313 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dicken" and "dickere" 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 #1,256,313 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