evilvslayerWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#15,620
“evil” frequency rank
#31,150
“layer” frequency rank
46770
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature evil layer
Definition böse Schicht

Letter map: evil vs layer

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

4 ch
evil
5 ch
layer

Role in the sentence - evil and layer

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: evil is anadjective and layeranoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46770, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

evil is recorded at frequency rank #15,620, classified as anadj, pronounced […]. layer is at rank #31,150, 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 46770, this pair ranks #1,307,628 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of evil vs layer

Shared letters: el. Private to "evil": iv. Private to "layer": ary.

"evil" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "layer" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • evileivl · evill · evli · evvil
  • layeralyer · laeyr · layerr · layre · layyer · llayer · lyaer

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "evil" and "layer" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "evil" is an adjective and "layer" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "evil" vs "layer" - which ranks higher?
"evil" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,620 in our German list, against #31,150 for "layer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "evil" and "layer".

  • Full dictionary entry for "evil" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "layer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,307,628 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "evil" and "layer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "layer 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 #1,307,628 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