HeiligevsHeiligerWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#3,127
“Heilige” frequency rank
#9,213
“Heiliger” frequency rank
12340
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Heilige Heiliger
Definition weibliche, als heilig verehrte Person als heilig verehrte Person

Where the eye mixes Heilige and Heiliger

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. Heilige runs 7 letters (CVVCVCV) against Heiliger's 8 (CVVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
Heilige
8 ch
Heiliger

Visual trap between Heilige and Heiliger

A purely visual mix-up. Heilige ([ˈhaɪ̯lɪɡə]) and Heiliger ([ˈhaɪ̯lɪɡɐ]) 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) - “Heilige” sits inside “Heiliger”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12340, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Heilige is recorded at frequency rank #3,127, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈhaɪ̯lɪɡə]. Heiliger is at rank #9,213, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈhaɪ̯lɪɡɐ].

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 12340, this pair ranks #1,964,740 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Heilige vs Heiliger

Shared letters: eghil. Private to "Heilige": -. Private to "Heiliger": r.

"Heilige" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCV  ·  "Heiliger" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Heiligeehilige · heiilge · heilgie · heilieg · heiligge · heillige · heliige · hheilige
  • Heiligerehiliger · heiilger · heilgier · heiliegr · heiligerr · heiligger · heiligre · heilliger

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Heilige" and "Heiliger" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈhaɪ̯lɪɡə] versus [ˈhaɪ̯lɪɡɐ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Heilige" or "Heiliger"?
"Heilige" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,127 in our German list, against #9,213 for "Heiliger". 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 "Heilige" and "Heiliger" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Heilige" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Heiliger" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,964,740 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Heilige" and "Heiliger" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Heiler vs Heiliger". 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 #1,964,740 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