Which to use
“Heiliger” is a noun and “heutiger” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #9,213
- “Heiliger” frequency rank
- #11,454
- “heutiger” frequency rank
- 20667
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Heiliger | heutiger |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | als heilig verehrte Person | Nominativ Singular Maskulinum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs heutig |
Where the eye mixes Heiliger and heutiger
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. Heiliger and heutiger follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses Heiliger with heutiger
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Heiliger is [ˈhaɪ̯lɪɡɐ] while heutiger is [ˈhɔɪ̯tɪɡɐ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20667, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Heiliger is recorded at frequency rank #9,213, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈhaɪ̯lɪɡɐ]. heutiger is at rank #11,454, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈhɔɪ̯tɪɡɐ].
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 20667, this pair ranks #1,895,146 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of Heiliger vs heutiger
Shared letters: eghir. Private to "Heiliger": l. Private to "heutiger": tu.
"Heiliger" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVCVC · "heutiger" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Heiliger" for "heutiger" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "Heiliger" or "heutiger" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "Heiliger" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "heutiger" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,895,146 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Heiliger" and "heutiger" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "heftigem vs heutiger". 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 #1,895,146 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.