friedlichvsfriedlicherWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#5,588
“friedlich” frequency rank
#25,555
“friedlicher” frequency rank
31143
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature friedlich friedlicher
Definition ohne Gewalt und Krieg; in Frieden Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Adjektivs friedlich

Where the eye mixes friedlich and friedlicher

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. friedlich runs 9 letters (CCVVCCVCC) against friedlicher's 11 (CCVVCCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
friedlich
11 ch
friedlicher

Why the eye confuses friedlich with friedlicher

A purely visual mix-up. friedlich ([ˈfʁiːtlɪç]) and friedlicher ([ˈfʁiːtlɪçɐ]) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “friedlich” sits inside “friedlicher”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31143, 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]. friedlicher is at rank #25,555, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈfʁiːtlɪçɐ].

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 31143, this pair ranks #1,733,970 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of friedlich vs friedlicher

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

"friedlich" · 9 letters · shape CCVVCCVCC  ·  "friedlicher" · 11 letters · shape CCVVCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • friedlichffriedlich · firedlich · freidlich · fridelich · frieddlich · friedilch · friedlcih · friedlicch
  • friedlicherffriedlicher · firedlicher · freidlicher · fridelicher · frieddlicher · friedilcher · friedlciher · friedliccher

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "friedlich" for "friedlicher" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈfʁiːtlɪç] versus [ˈfʁiːtlɪçɐ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "friedlich" vs "friedlicher" - which ranks higher?
"friedlich" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,588 in our German list, against #25,555 for "friedlicher". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "friedlich" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "friedlicher" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,733,970 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "friedlich" and "friedlicher" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "feindlicher vs friedlicher". 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 #1,733,970 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