errorvsriceWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“error” and “rice” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#21,958
“error” frequency rank
#23,680
“rice” frequency rank
45638
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature error rice
Definition Fehler, Irrtum, Schnitzer Reis

Letter map: error vs rice

Shared letters muted; letters that set error and rice apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. error runs 5 letters (VCCVC) against rice's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
error
4 ch
rice

Pair insight - error / rice

error and rice are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45638, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

error is recorded at frequency rank #21,958, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. rice is at rank #23,680, tagged as anoun, 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 45638, this pair ranks #1,346,207 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of error vs rice

Shared letters: er. Private to "error": o. Private to "rice": ci.

"error" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "rice" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • erroreror · erorr · errorr · errro · reror
  • riceirce · rcie · ricce · riec · rrice

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "error" and "rice" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "error" vs "rice" - which ranks higher?
"error" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,958 in our German list, against #23,680 for "rice". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "error" and "rice". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "error" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rice" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,346,207 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "error" and "rice" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs rice". 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 #1,346,207 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