EichevsEikeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Eiche is a noun, Eike is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Eiche” is a noun and “Eike” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#11,034
“Eiche” frequency rank
#31,516
“Eike” frequency rank
42550
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Eiche Eike
Definition Laubbaum der Gattung Quercus weiblicher Vorname

Where the eye mixes Eiche and Eike

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

5 ch
Eiche
4 ch
Eike

Visual trap between Eiche and Eike

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Eiche is [ˈaɪ̯çə] while Eike is [ˈaɪ̯kə]. 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 (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42550, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Eiche is recorded at frequency rank #11,034, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈaɪ̯çə]. Eike is at rank #31,516, tagged as aname, pronounced [ˈaɪ̯kə].

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 42550, this pair ranks #1,445,912 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Eiche vs Eike

Shared letters: ei. Private to "Eiche": ch. Private to "Eike": k.

"Eiche" · 5 letters · shape VVCCV  ·  "Eike" · 4 letters · shape VVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Eicheecihe · eicche · eiceh · eichhe · eihce · ieche
  • Eikeeiek · eikke · ekie · ieke

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Eiche" for "Eike" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Eiche" is a noun and "Eike" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Eiche" or "Eike" show up more?
"Eiche" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,034 in our German list, against #31,516 for "Eike". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Eiche" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Eike" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,445,912 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Eiche" and "Eike" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Eike 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 #1,445,912 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