Which to use
“Heike” is a name and “henke” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #12,939
- “Heike” frequency rank
- #35,229
- “henke” frequency rank
- 48168
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Heike | henke |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | weiblicher Vorname | 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs henken |
Where the eye mixes Heike and henke
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between Heike and henke
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Heike is [ˈhaɪ̯kə] while henke is [ˈhɛŋkə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - i in “Heike” becomes n in “henke”, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48168, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Heike is recorded at frequency rank #12,939, classified as aname, pronounced [ˈhaɪ̯kə]. henke is at rank #35,229, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈhɛŋkə].
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 48168, this pair ranks #1,258,353 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of Heike vs henke
Shared letters: ehk. Private to "Heike": i. Private to "henke": n.
"Heike" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "henke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Heike" for "henke" ever safe?
Which is more common, "Heike" or "henke"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "Heike" and "henke" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "Heike" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "henke" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,258,353 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Heike" and "henke" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hegte vs henke". 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 #1,258,353 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.