doevsdolleWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#33,000
“doe” frequency rank
#31,002
“dolle” frequency rank
64002
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature doe dolle
Definition Hirschkuh: ein weiblicher Hirsch Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs doll

Letter map: doe vs dolle

Shared letters muted; letters that set doe and dolle apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

3 ch
doe
5 ch
dolle

Grammar separator: doe vs dolle

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: doe is anoun and dolleanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64002, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

doe is recorded at frequency rank #33,000, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. dolle is at rank #31,002, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈdɔlə].

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 64002, this pair ranks #656,822 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of doe vs dolle

Shared letters: deo. Private to "doe": -. Private to "dolle": l.

"doe" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "dolle" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dolleddolle · dlole · dole · dolel · odlle

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "doe" for "dolle" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "doe" is a noun and "dolle" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "doe" vs "dolle" - which ranks higher?
"dolle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,002 in our German list, against #33,000 for "doe". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "doe" and "dolle".

  • Full dictionary entry for "doe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dolle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #656,822 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "doe" and "dolle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "doe vs puzzles". 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 #656,822 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