heiservsheitereWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#37,562
“heiser” frequency rank
#23,172
“heitere” frequency rank
60734
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature heiser heitere
Definition rau und/oder tonlos klingend, zumeist durch Überanstrengung oder Krankheit Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs heiter

Where the eye mixes heiser and heitere

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. heiser runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against heitere's 7 (CVVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
heiser
7 ch
heitere

Visual trap between heiser and heitere

A purely visual mix-up. heiser ([ˈhaɪ̯zɐ]) and heitere ([ˈhaɪ̯təʁə]) 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 60734, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

heiser is recorded at frequency rank #37,562, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈhaɪ̯zɐ]. heitere is at rank #23,172, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈhaɪ̯təʁə].

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 60734, this pair ranks #775,966 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of heiser vs heitere

Shared letters: ehir. Private to "heiser": s. Private to "heitere": t.

"heiser" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "heitere" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • heiser ← ehiser · heiesr · heiserr · heisre · heisser · hesier · hheiser · hieser
  • heitere ← ehitere · heietre · heiteer · heiterre · heitree · heittere · hetiere · hheitere

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "heiser" for "heitere" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈhaɪ̯zɐ] versus [ˈhaɪ̯təʁə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "heiser" or "heitere"?
"heitere" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,172 in our German list, against #37,562 for "heiser". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "heiser" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "heitere" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #775,966 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "heiser" and "heitere" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "heiser 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 #775,966 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