friedlichvsfriedlicheWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#5,588
“friedlich” frequency rank
#9,546
“friedliche” frequency rank
15134
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature friedlich friedliche
Definition ohne Gewalt und Krieg; in Frieden Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs friedlich

Where the eye mixes friedlich and friedliche

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. friedlich runs 9 letters (CCVVCCVCC) against friedliche's 10 (CCVVCCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
friedlich
10 ch
friedliche

Look-alike desk: friedlich vs friedliche

A purely visual mix-up. friedlich ([ˈfʁiːtlɪç]) and friedliche ([ˈfʁiːtlɪçə]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “friedlich” sits inside “friedliche”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15134, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

friedlich is recorded at frequency rank #5,588, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈfʁiːtlɪç]. friedliche is at rank #9,546, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈfʁiːtlɪçə].

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 15134, this pair ranks #1,946,125 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of friedlich vs friedliche

Shared letters: cdefhilr. Private to "friedlich": -. Private to "friedliche": -.

"friedlich" · 9 letters · shape CCVVCCVCC  ·  "friedliche" · 10 letters · shape CCVVCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • friedlichffriedlich · firedlich · freidlich · fridelich · frieddlich · friedilch · friedlcih · friedlicch
  • friedlicheffriedliche · firedliche · freidliche · frideliche · frieddliche · friedilche · friedlcihe · friedlicche

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "friedlich" and "friedliche" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈfʁiːtlɪç] versus [ˈfʁiːtlɪçə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "friedlich" or "friedliche"?
"friedlich" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,588 in our German list, against #9,546 for "friedliche". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "friedlich" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "friedliche" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,946,125 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "friedlich" and "friedliche" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "friedliche vs friedliches". 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 #1,946,125 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