Which to use
“evil” is an adjective and “patches” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #15,620
- “evil” frequency rank
- #40,746
- “patches” frequency rank
- 56366
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | evil | patches |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | böse | 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs patch |
Letter map: evil vs patches
Shared letters muted; letters that set evil and patches apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. evil runs 4 letters (VCVC) against patches's 7 (CVCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Role in the sentence - evil and patches
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: evil is anadjective and patchesaverb. On the page they differ by 3 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56366, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
evil is recorded at frequency rank #15,620, classified as anadj, pronounced […]. patches is at rank #40,746, 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 56366, this pair ranks #943,043 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of evil vs patches
Shared letters: e. Private to "evil": ilv. Private to "patches": achpst.
"evil" · 4 letters · shape VCVC · "patches" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "evil" for "patches" ever safe?
Frequency check: "evil" vs "patches" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "evil" and "patches".
- Full dictionary entry for "evil" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "patches" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #943,043 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "evil" and "patches" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "patches 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 #943,043 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.