HeinzevsHenneTell them apart

Which to use

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

#35,829
“Heinze” frequency rank
#21,286
“Henne” frequency rank
57115
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Heinze Henne
Definition Holzgerüst zum Trocknen des Heus weiblicher Vogel (insbesondere bei Hühnern)

Where the eye mixes Heinze and Henne

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

6 ch
Heinze
5 ch
Henne

Visual trap between Heinze and Henne

A purely visual mix-up. Heinze ([ˈhaɪ̯nt͡sə]) and Henne ([ˈhɛnə]) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57115, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Heinze is recorded at frequency rank #35,829, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈhaɪ̯nt͡sə]. Henne is at rank #21,286, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈhɛnə].

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 57115, this pair ranks #913,869 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Heinze vs Henne

Shared letters: ehn. Private to "Heinze": iz. Private to "Henne": -.

"Heinze" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "Henne" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Heinze ← ehinze · heinez · heinnze · heinzze · henize · hheinze · hienze
  • Henne ← ehnne · hene · henen · hhenne · hnene

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Heinze" and "Henne" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈhaɪ̯nt͡sə] versus [ˈhɛnə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "Heinze" or "Henne" show up more?
"Henne" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,286 in our German list, against #35,829 for "Heinze". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Heinze" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Henne" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #913,869 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Heinze" and "Henne" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Hähne vs Henne". 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 #913,869 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