engevsengineTell them apart

Quick tell: enge is a adjective, engine is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#3,724
“enge” frequency rank
#16,976
“engine” frequency rank
20700
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature enge engine
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs eng (Antriebs-)Maschine

Where the eye mixes enge and engine

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

4 ch
enge
6 ch
engine

Look-alike desk: enge vs engine

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: enge is [ˈɛŋə] while engine is [ˈɛnd͡ʒɪn]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20700, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

enge is recorded at frequency rank #3,724, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈɛŋə]. engine is at rank #16,976, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈɛnd͡ʒɪn].

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 20700, this pair ranks #1,894,734 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of enge vs engine

Shared letters: egn. Private to "enge": -. Private to "engine": i.

"enge" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "engine" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • engeegne · eneg · engge · ennge · nege
  • engineegnine · enggine · engien · enginne · engnie · enigne · enngine · negine

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "enge" and "engine" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "enge" is an adjective and "engine" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "enge" or "engine"?
"enge" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,724 in our German list, against #16,976 for "engine". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "enge" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "engine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,894,734 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "enge" and "engine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "eigne vs engine". 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 #1,894,734 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