EckevsEscheWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,806
“Ecke” frequency rank
#39,328
“Esche” frequency rank
41134
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Ecke Esche
Definition Punkt, in welchem zwei begrenzende Linien einer Fläche beziehungsweise drei oder mehr Grenzflächen eines Körpers zusammenstoßen Laubbaum der Gattung Fraxinus

Where the eye mixes Ecke and Esche

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

4 ch
Ecke
5 ch
Esche

Visual trap between Ecke and Esche

A purely visual mix-up. Ecke ([ˈɛkə]) and Esche ([ˈɛʃə]) 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 41134, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Ecke is recorded at frequency rank #1,806, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈɛkə]. Esche is at rank #39,328, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈɛʃə].

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 41134, this pair ranks #1,488,334 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Ecke vs Esche

Shared letters: ce. Private to "Ecke": k. Private to "Esche": hs.

"Ecke" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "Esche" · 5 letters · shape VCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Eckeceke · eccke · ecek · eckke · ekce
  • Escheecshe · escche · esceh · eschhe · eshce · essche · seche

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Ecke" for "Esche" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈɛkə] versus [ˈɛʃə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Ecke" vs "Esche" - which ranks higher?
"Ecke" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,806 in our German list, against #39,328 for "Esche". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Ecke" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Esche" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,488,334 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Ecke" and "Esche" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Esche vs Eschen". 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 #1,488,334 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