GeländevsGewindeTell them apart

Which to use

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

#2,717
“Gelände” frequency rank
#35,805
“Gewinde” frequency rank
38522
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Gelände Gewinde
Definition irgendein Teil der Landschaft profilierte Einkerbung, die fortlaufend wendelartig um eine zylinderförmige Wandung – innen oder außen – in einer gewundenen Schraubenlinie verläuft.

Where the eye mixes Gelände and Gewinde

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. Gelände and Gewinde follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
Gelände
7 ch
Gewinde

Visual trap between Gelände and Gewinde

A purely visual mix-up. Gelände ([ɡəˈlɛndə]) and Gewinde ([ɡəˈvɪndə]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38522, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Gelände is recorded at frequency rank #2,717, classified as anoun, pronounced [ɡəˈlɛndə]. Gewinde is at rank #35,805, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ɡəˈvɪndə].

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 38522, this pair ranks #1,561,740 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Gelände vs Gewinde

Shared letters: degn. Private to "Gelände": lä. Private to "Gewinde": iw.

"Gelände" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "Gewinde" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Gewinde ← egwinde · geiwnde · gewidne · gewindde · gewined · gewinnde · gewnide · gewwinde

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Gelände" for "Gewinde" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ɡəˈlɛndə] versus [ɡəˈvɪndə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "Gelände" or "Gewinde" show up more?
"Gelände" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,717 in our German list, against #35,805 for "Gewinde". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Gelände" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Gewinde" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,561,740 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Gelände" and "Gewinde" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Gerlinde vs Gewinde". 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 #1,561,740 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