HähnevshankWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#49,790
“Hähne” frequency rank
#27,764
“hank” frequency rank
77554
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Hähne hank
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Hahn (Garn) Strang, Docke

Letter map: Hähne vs hank

Shared letters muted; letters that set Hähne and hank apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. Hähne runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against hank's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
Hähne
4 ch
hank

Pair insight - Hähne / hank

Hähne and hank are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77554, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Hähne is recorded at frequency rank #49,790, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈhɛːnə]. hank is at rank #27,764, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

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 77554, this pair ranks #258,157 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Hähne vs hank

Shared letters: hn. Private to "Hähne": eä. Private to "hank": ak.

"Hähne" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "hank" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hank ← ahnk · hakn · hankk · hannk · hhank · hnak

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Hähne" and "hank" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "Hähne" vs "hank" - which ranks higher?
"hank" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,764 in our German list, against #49,790 for "Hähne". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "Hähne" vs "hank" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Hähne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hank" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #258,157 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Hähne" and "hank" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Hähne vs haze". 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 #258,157 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