evilvsfoodWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#15,620
“evil” frequency rank
#7,045
“food” frequency rank
22665
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature evil food
Definition böse jede Substanz die von Menschen, Pflanzen oder Tieren aufgenommen wird, um das Überleben und das Wachstum zu ermöglichen, Nahrung

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set evil and food apart are highlighted. They share no common letter run, the confusion here is by sound, not by sight.

4 ch
evil
4 ch
food

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: evil is anadjective and foodanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22665, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

evil is recorded at frequency rank #15,620, classified as anadj, pronounced […]. food is at rank #7,045, 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 22665, this pair ranks #1,871,301 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of evil vs food

Shared letters: none. Private to "evil": eilv. Private to "food": dfo.

"evil" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "food" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • evileivl · evill · evli · evvil
  • foodffood · fod · fodo · foodd · ofod

Frequency comparison

evil#15,620
food#7,045

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "evil" and "food" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "evil" is an adjective and "food" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "evil" or "food"?
"food" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,045 in our German list, against #15,620 for "evil". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering evil vs food

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “evil”; for a noun, it's “food”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “evil” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list