eaglevsEuleTell them apart

Which to use

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

#23,484
“eagle” frequency rank
#17,286
“Eule” frequency rank
40770
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature eagle Eule
Definition Vogelart; Adler nachtaktiver, in Wäldern lebender Raubvogel mit kurzem, krummem Schnabel und großen, scharfen Augen, der seinen rundlichen Kopf bis zu 270° drehen kann

Where the eye mixes eagle and Eule

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
eagle
4 ch
Eule

Why the eye confuses eagle with Eule

A purely visual mix-up. eagle ([ˈiːɡl̩]) and Eule ([ˈɔɪ̯lə]) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40770, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

eagle is recorded at frequency rank #23,484, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈiːɡl̩]. Eule is at rank #17,286, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈɔɪ̯lə].

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 40770, this pair ranks #1,498,802 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of eagle vs Eule

Shared letters: el. Private to "eagle": ag. Private to "Eule": u.

"eagle" · 5 letters · shape VVCCV  ·  "Eule" · 4 letters · shape VVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • eagleaegle · eagel · eaggle · eaglle · ealge · egale
  • Euleelue · euel · eulle · uele

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "eagle" for "Eule" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈiːɡl̩] versus [ˈɔɪ̯lə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "eagle" or "Eule"?
"Eule" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,286 in our German list, against #23,484 for "eagle". 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 "eagle" and "Eule" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "eagle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Eule" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,498,802 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "eagle" and "Eule" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "eagle vs Erle". 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 #1,498,802 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