geilevsGleiseWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#3,252
“geile” frequency rank
#13,850
“Gleise” frequency rank
17102
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature geile Gleise
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs geil Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Gleis

Where the eye mixes geile and Gleise

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. geile runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against Gleise's 6 (CCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
geile
6 ch
Gleise

Visual trap between geile and Gleise

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: geile is [ˈɡaɪ̯lə] while Gleise is [ˈɡlaɪ̯zə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17102, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

geile is recorded at frequency rank #3,252, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈɡaɪ̯lə]. Gleise is at rank #13,850, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈɡlaɪ̯zə].

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 17102, this pair ranks #1,930,341 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of geile vs Gleise

Shared letters: egil. Private to "geile": -. Private to "Gleise": s.

"geile" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "Gleise" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • geile ← egile · geiel · geille · gelie · ggeile · giele
  • Gleise ← gelise · ggleise · gleies · gleisse · glesie · gliese · glleise · lgeise

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "geile" and "Gleise" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "geile" is an adjective and "Gleise" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "geile" or "Gleise" show up more?
"geile" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,252 in our German list, against #13,850 for "Gleise". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "geile" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Gleise" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,930,341 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "geile" and "Gleise" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "geis vs Gleise". 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 #1,930,341 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