heiratevsheiratenWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#22,754
“heirate” frequency rank
#4,276
“heiraten” frequency rank
27030
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature heirate heiraten
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs heiraten den Bund der Ehe eingehen

Where the eye mixes heirate and heiraten

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

7 ch
heirate
8 ch
heiraten

Why the eye confuses heirate with heiraten

A purely visual mix-up. heirate ([ˈhaɪ̯ʁaːtə]) and heiraten ([ˈhaɪ̯ʁaːtn̩]) 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) - “heirate” sits inside “heiraten”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27030, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

heirate is recorded at frequency rank #22,754, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈhaɪ̯ʁaːtə]. heiraten is at rank #4,276, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈhaɪ̯ʁaːtn̩].

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 27030, this pair ranks #1,808,437 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of heirate vs heiraten

Shared letters: aehirt. Private to "heirate": -. Private to "heiraten": n.

"heirate" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCV  ·  "heiraten" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • heirateehirate · heiarte · heiraet · heirrate · heirtae · heriate · hheirate · hierate
  • heiratenehiraten · heiarten · heiraetn · heiratenn · heiratne · heiratten · heirraten · heirtaen

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "heirate" and "heiraten" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈhaɪ̯ʁaːtə] versus [ˈhaɪ̯ʁaːtn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "heirate" or "heiraten"?
"heiraten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,276 in our German list, against #22,754 for "heirate". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "heirate" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "heiraten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,808,437 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "heirate" and "heiraten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "heirate vs Hirte". 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 #1,808,437 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