empiresvslikesWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#35,743
“empires” frequency rank
#16,771
“likes” frequency rank
52514
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature empires likes
Definition Plural des Substantivs empire 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs like

Letter map: empires vs likes

Shared letters muted; letters that set empires and likes apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. empires runs 7 letters (VCCVCVC) against likes's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
empires
5 ch
likes

Role in the sentence - empires and likes

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: empires is anoun and likesaverb. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52514, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

empires is recorded at frequency rank #35,743, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. likes is at rank #16,771, 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 52514, this pair ranks #1,093,781 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of empires vs likes

Shared letters: eis. Private to "empires": mpr. Private to "likes": kl.

"empires" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC  ·  "likes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • empiresemipres · emmpires · empiers · empiress · empirres · empirse · emppires · empries
  • likesilkes · lieks · likess · likkes · likse · lkies · llikes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "empires" for "likes" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "empires" is a noun and "likes" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "empires" or "likes"?
"likes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,771 in our German list, against #35,743 for "empires". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "empires" and "likes". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "empires" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "likes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,093,781 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "empires" and "likes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "empires 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 #1,093,781 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