HeravsherabTell them apart

Quick tell: Hera is a noun, herab is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Hera” is a noun and “herab” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#35,231
“Hera” frequency rank
#11,672
“herab” frequency rank
46903
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Hera herab
Definition höchste der olympischen Götter, Schwester und Gattin des Zeus von oben nach unten (meist in einer Perspektive, in der der Betrachter unten steht)

Where the eye mixes Hera and herab

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

4 ch
Hera
5 ch
herab

Look-alike desk: Hera vs herab

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Hera is [ˈheːʁa] while herab is [hɛˈʁap]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “Hera” sits inside “herab”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46903, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Hera is recorded at frequency rank #35,231, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈheːʁa]. herab is at rank #11,672, tagged as anadv, pronounced [hɛˈʁap].

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 46903, this pair ranks #1,303,022 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Hera vs herab

Shared letters: aehr. Private to "Hera": -. Private to "herab": b.

"Hera" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "herab" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Hera ← ehra · herra · hhera · hrea
  • herab ← ehrab · hearb · herabb · herba · herrab · hherab · hreab

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Hera" and "herab" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Hera" is a noun and "herab" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Hera" or "herab" show up more?
"herab" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,672 in our German list, against #35,231 for "Hera". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Hera" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "herab" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,303,022 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Hera" and "herab" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "heel vs Hera". 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 #1,303,022 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