heitervshinterWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: heiter is a adjective, hinter is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“heiter” is an adjective and “hinter” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#17,323
“heiter” frequency rank
#410
“hinter” frequency rank
17733
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature heiter hinter
Definition eine gute Stimmung oder gute Laune betreffend, lustig, humorvoll; innere Ausgeglichenheit haben in Richtung der Rückseite von etwas entfernt

Where the eye mixes heiter and hinter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
heiter
6 ch
hinter

Look-alike desk: heiter vs hinter

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: heiter is [ˈhaɪ̯tɐ] while hinter is [ˈhɪntɐ]. 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 (adjective vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17733, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

heiter is recorded at frequency rank #17,323, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈhaɪ̯tɐ]. hinter is at rank #410, tagged as aprep, pronounced [ˈhɪntɐ].

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 17733, this pair ranks #1,924,780 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of heiter vs hinter

Shared letters: ehirt. Private to "heiter": -. Private to "hinter": n.

"heiter" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "hinter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • heiterehiter · heietr · heiterr · heitre · heitter · hetier · hheiter · hieter
  • hinterhhinter · hinetr · hinnter · hinterr · hintre · hintter · hitner · hniter

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "heiter" and "hinter" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "heiter" is an adjective and "hinter" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "heiter" or "hinter"?
"hinter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #410 in our German list, against #17,323 for "heiter". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "heiter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hinter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,924,780 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "heiter" and "hinter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "heiter 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 #1,924,780 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