EimervselderWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#9,356
“Eimer” frequency rank
#35,740
“elder” frequency rank
45096
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Eimer elder
Definition hohes, rundes Gefäß, zumeist in Form eines Zylinders oder Kegelstumpfes, das mit einem beweglichen Henkel versehen ist und zur Aufbewahrung und/oder zum Transport, besonders von Flüssigkeiten, dient ältere Person: Älterer/Ältere

Letter map: Eimer vs elder

Shared letters muted; letters that set Eimer and elder apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
Eimer
5 ch
elder

Pair insight - Eimer / elder

Eimer and elder are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45096, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Eimer is recorded at frequency rank #9,356, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈaɪ̯mɐ]. elder is at rank #35,740, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

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 45096, this pair ranks #1,364,618 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Eimer vs elder

Shared letters: er. Private to "Eimer": im. Private to "elder": dl.

"Eimer" · 5 letters · shape VVCVC  ·  "elder" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Eimereiemr · eimerr · eimmer · eimre · iemer
  • eldereldder · elderr · eldre · eledr · ellder

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Eimer" for "elder" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "Eimer" vs "elder" - which ranks higher?
"Eimer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,356 in our German list, against #35,740 for "elder". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "Eimer" and "elder". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Eimer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "elder" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,364,618 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Eimer" and "elder" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "elder 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 #1,364,618 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