HammvsHaremWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#7,334
“Hamm” frequency rank
#40,585
“Harem” frequency rank
47919
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Hamm Harem
Definition gebogener Hang eines Weinbergs von den Männern abgegrenzter Wohnbereich für Frauen in einem Haus

Where the eye mixes Hamm and Harem

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Hamm
5 ch
Harem

Visual trap between Hamm and Harem

A purely visual mix-up. Hamm ([ham]) and Harem ([ˈhaːʁɛm]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47919, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Hamm is recorded at frequency rank #7,334, classified as anoun, pronounced [ham]. Harem is at rank #40,585, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈhaːʁɛm].

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 47919, this pair ranks #1,267,299 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Hamm vs Harem

Shared letters: ahm. Private to "Hamm": -. Private to "Harem": er.

"Hamm" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "Harem" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Hammahmm · hhamm · hmam
  • Haremahrem · haerm · haremm · harme · harrem · hharem · hraem

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Hamm" for "Harem" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ham] versus [ˈhaːʁɛm]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Hamm" or "Harem"?
"Hamm" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,334 in our German list, against #40,585 for "Harem". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "Hamm" and "Harem" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Hamm" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Harem" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,267,299 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Hamm" and "Harem" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Harem 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 #1,267,299 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