empirevsspacesTell them apart

Quick tell: empire is a noun, spaces is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“empire” is a noun and “spaces” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#14,553
“empire” frequency rank
#38,421
“spaces” frequency rank
52974
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature empire spaces
Definition Imperium, Reich 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs space

Letter map: empire vs spaces

Shared letters muted; letters that set empire and spaces apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. empire (VCCVCV) and spaces (CCVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
empire
6 ch
spaces

Part-of-speech tell for empire / spaces

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: empire is anoun and spacesaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 6 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52974, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

empire is recorded at frequency rank #14,553, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. spaces is at rank #38,421, tagged as averb, 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 52974, this pair ranks #1,075,973 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of empire vs spaces

Shared letters: ep. Private to "empire": imr. Private to "spaces": acs.

"empire" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "spaces" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • empireemipre · emmpire · empier · empirre · emppire · emprie · epmire · mepire
  • spacespsaces · sapces · spacces · spacess · spacse · spaecs · spcaes · sppaces

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "empire" and "spaces" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "empire" is a noun and "spaces" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "empire" or "spaces"?
"empire" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,553 in our German list, against #38,421 for "spaces". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "empire" vs "spaces" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "empire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "spaces" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,075,973 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "empire" and "spaces" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs spaces". 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 #1,075,973 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