EinsvseinsamWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#923
“Eins” frequency rank
#7,458
“einsam” frequency rank
8381
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Eins einsam
Definition die natürliche Zahl zwischen Null und Zwei ohne Gesellschaft, ohne Kontakt zu anderen Menschen oder der Umwelt

Where the eye mixes Eins and einsam

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Eins
6 ch
einsam

Look-alike desk: Eins vs einsam

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Eins is [aɪ̯ns] while einsam is [ˈaɪ̯nzaːm]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “Eins” sits inside “einsam”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8381, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Eins is recorded at frequency rank #923, classified as anoun, pronounced [aɪ̯ns]. einsam is at rank #7,458, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈaɪ̯nzaːm].

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 8381, this pair ranks #1,984,522 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Eins vs einsam

Shared letters: eins. Private to "Eins": -. Private to "einsam": am.

"Eins" · 4 letters · shape VVCC  ·  "einsam" · 6 letters · shape VVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Einseinns · einss · eisn · enis · iens
  • einsameinasm · einnsam · einsamm · einsma · einssam · eisnam · enisam · iensam

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Eins" for "einsam" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Eins" is a noun and "einsam" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Eins" vs "einsam" - which ranks higher?
"Eins" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #923 in our German list, against #7,458 for "einsam". 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 "Eins" and "einsam" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Eins" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "einsam" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,984,522 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Eins" and "einsam" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Edna vs Eins". 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 #1,984,522 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