digitalvsdigitalenWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“digital” and “digitalen” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#4,109
“digital” frequency rank
#4,971
“digitalen” frequency rank
9080
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature digital digitalen
Definition auf der Datenübertragung oder Datenverarbeitung durch diskrete (meist elektrische oder elektromagnetische) Signale beruhend Genitiv Singular Maskulinum und Neutrum,

Where the eye mixes digital and digitalen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

7 ch
digital
9 ch
digitalen

Visual trap between digital and digitalen

A purely visual mix-up. digital ([diɡiˈtaːl]) and digitalen ([diɡiˈtaːlən]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “digital” sits inside “digitalen”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9080, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

digital is recorded at frequency rank #4,109, classified as anadj, pronounced [diɡiˈtaːl]. digitalen is at rank #4,971, tagged as anadj, pronounced [diɡiˈtaːlən].

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 9080, this pair ranks #1,981,547 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of digital vs digitalen

Shared letters: adgilt. Private to "digital": -. Private to "digitalen": en.

"digital" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "digitalen" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • digitalddigital · dgiital · diggital · digiatl · digitall · digitla · digittal · digtial
  • digitalenddigitalen · dgiitalen · diggitalen · digiatlen · digitaeln · digitalenn · digitallen · digitalne

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "digital" and "digitalen" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([diɡiˈtaːl] versus [diɡiˈtaːlən]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "digital" or "digitalen"?
"digital" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,109 in our German list, against #4,971 for "digitalen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "digital" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "digitalen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,981,547 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "digital" and "digitalen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "digitalen vs digitales". 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 #1,981,547 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