GliedervsgliedernWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Glieder is a noun, gliedern is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Glieder” is a noun and “gliedern” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#25,155
“Glieder” frequency rank
#25,577
“gliedern” frequency rank
50732
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Glieder gliedern
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Glied etwas zwecks der Übersichtlichkeit in einzelne, manchmal hierarchisch geordnete Einheiten teilen

Where the eye mixes Glieder and gliedern

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. Glieder runs 7 letters (CCVVCVC) against gliedern's 8 (CCVVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
Glieder
8 ch
gliedern

Visual trap between Glieder and gliedern

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Glieder is [ˈɡliːdɐ] while gliedern is [ˈɡliːdɐn]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “Glieder” sits inside “gliedern”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50732, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Glieder is recorded at frequency rank #25,155, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈɡliːdɐ]. gliedern is at rank #25,577, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈɡliːdɐn].

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 50732, this pair ranks #1,162,585 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Glieder vs gliedern

Shared letters: degilr. Private to "Glieder": -. Private to "gliedern": n.

"Glieder" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC  ·  "gliedern" · 8 letters · shape CCVVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Glieder ← gglieder · gileder · gleider · glideer · gliedder · gliederr · gliedre · glieedr
  • gliedern ← ggliedern · giledern · gleidern · glideern · glieddern · gliedenr · gliedernn · gliederrn

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Glieder" and "gliedern" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Glieder" is a noun and "gliedern" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Glieder" or "gliedern" show up more?
"Glieder" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,155 in our German list, against #25,577 for "gliedern". 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 "Glieder" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gliedern" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,162,585 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Glieder" and "gliedern" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Gefieder vs Glieder". 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 #1,162,585 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