Which to use
“elder” is a noun and “late” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #35,740
- “elder” frequency rank
- #14,348
- “late” frequency rank
- 50088
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | elder | late |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | ältere Person: Älterer/Ältere | spät |
Letter map: elder vs late
Shared letters muted; letters that set elder and late apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. elder runs 5 letters (VCCVC) against late's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Grammar separator: elder vs late
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: elder is anoun and lateanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50088, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
elder is recorded at frequency rank #35,740, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. late is at rank #14,348, tagged as anadj, 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 50088, this pair ranks #1,187,083 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of elder vs late
Shared letters: el. Private to "elder": dr. Private to "late": at.
"elder" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC · "late" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "elder" and "late" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "elder" or "late" show up more?
After this comparison
Pair "elder" vs "late" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "elder" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "late" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,187,083 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "elder" and "late" 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 #1,187,083 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.