Which to use
“great” and “grell” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,381
- “great” frequency rank
- #39,978
- “grell” frequency rank
- 48359
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | great | grell |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | sehr groß | unangenehm hell |
Where the eye mixes great and grell
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: great vs grell
A purely visual mix-up. great ([ɡɹeɪt]) and grell ([ɡʁɛl]) 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 48359, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
great is recorded at frequency rank #8,381, classified as anadj, pronounced [ɡɹeɪt]. grell is at rank #39,978, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ɡʁɛl].
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 48359, this pair ranks #1,251,445 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of great vs grell
Shared letters: egr. Private to "great": at. Private to "grell": l.
"great" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC · "grell" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "great" and "grell" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "great" or "grell" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "great" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "grell" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,251,445 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "great" and "grell" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gesell vs grell". 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 #1,251,445 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.