heiklevsheiklenTell them apart

Which to use

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

#32,080
“heikle” frequency rank
#41,882
“heiklen” frequency rank
73962
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature heikle heiklen
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs heikel Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs heikel

Where the eye mixes heikle and heiklen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. heikle runs 6 letters (CVVCCV) against heiklen's 7 (CVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
heikle
7 ch
heiklen

Visual trap between heikle and heiklen

A purely visual mix-up. heikle ([ˈhaɪ̯klə]) and heiklen ([ˈhaɪ̯klən]) 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 extra letter(s) - “heikle” sits inside “heiklen”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73962, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

heikle is recorded at frequency rank #32,080, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈhaɪ̯klə]. heiklen is at rank #41,882, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈhaɪ̯klən].

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 73962, this pair ranks #346,237 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of heikle vs heiklen

Shared letters: ehikl. Private to "heikle": -. Private to "heiklen": n.

"heikle" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "heiklen" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • heikle ← ehikle · heikkle · heiklle · heilke · hekile · hheikle · hiekle
  • heiklen ← ehiklen · heikeln · heikklen · heiklenn · heikllen · heiklne · heilken · hekilen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "heikle" for "heiklen" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈhaɪ̯klə] versus [ˈhaɪ̯klən]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "heikle" vs "heiklen" - which ranks higher?
"heikle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,080 in our German list, against #41,882 for "heiklen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "heikle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "heiklen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #346,237 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "heikle" and "heiklen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "heckler vs heiklen". 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 #346,237 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