heiklevsHeimeTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#32,080
“heikle” frequency rank
#33,105
“Heime” frequency rank
65185
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature heikle Heime
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs heikel Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Heim

Where the eye mixes heikle and Heime

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. heikle runs 6 letters (CVVCCV) against Heime's 5 (CVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
heikle
5 ch
Heime

Look-alike desk: heikle vs Heime

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: heikle is [ˈhaɪ̯klə] while Heime is [ˈhaɪ̯mə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65185, 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]. Heime is at rank #33,105, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈhaɪ̯mə].

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 65185, this pair ranks #615,639 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of heikle vs Heime

Shared letters: ehi. Private to "heikle": kl. Private to "Heime": m.

"heikle" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "Heime" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • heikleehikle · heikkle · heiklle · heilke · hekile · hheikle · hiekle
  • Heimeehime · heiem · heimme · hemie · hheime · hieme

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "heikle" for "Heime" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "heikle" is an adjective and "Heime" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "heikle" vs "Heime" - which ranks higher?
"heikle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,080 in our German list, against #33,105 for "Heime". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "heikle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Heime" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #615,639 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "heikle" and "Heime" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Heime vs Hemer". 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 #615,639 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