hardyvsharmConfusable pair

Quick tell: hardy is a adjective, harm is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hardy” is an adjective and “harm” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#16,729
“hardy” frequency rank
#46,723
“harm” frequency rank
63452
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hardy harm
Definition abgehärtet, widerstandsfähig, ausdauernd körperlicher oder geistiger Schaden

Letter map: hardy vs harm

Shared letters muted; letters that set hardy and harm apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
hardy
4 ch
harm

Grammar separator: hardy vs harm

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: hardy is anadjective and harmanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63452, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hardy is recorded at frequency rank #16,729, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈhɑːdɪ]. harm is at rank #46,723, 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 63452, this pair ranks #676,357 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hardy vs harm

Shared letters: ahr. Private to "hardy": dy. Private to "harm": m.

"hardy" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "harm" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hardyahrdy · hadry · harddy · hardyy · harrdy · haryd · hhardy · hrady
  • harmahrm · hamr · harmm · harrm · hharm · hram

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hardy" and "harm" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hardy" is an adjective and "harm" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "hardy" or "harm" show up more?
"hardy" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,729 in our German list, against #46,723 for "harm". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "hardy" and "harm". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hardy" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "harm" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #676,357 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hardy" and "harm" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "harm vs puzzles". 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 #676,357 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