Which to use
“Herde” is a noun and “holde” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #12,505
- “Herde” frequency rank
- #45,352
- “holde” frequency rank
- 57857
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Herde | holde |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Gruppe von meist größeren Säugetieren der gleichen Art, die im losen oder sozialisierten Verband (mit Ausbildung einer Rangordnung) leben; Gruppen von flugunfähigen Vögeln und Gruppen verschiedener Arten kommen ebenfalls in Herden vor | Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs hold |
Where the eye mixes Herde and holde
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Herde and holde follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: Herde vs holde
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Herde is [ˈheːɐ̯də] while holde is [ˈhɔldə]. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57857, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Herde is recorded at frequency rank #12,505, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈheːɐ̯də]. holde is at rank #45,352, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈhɔldə].
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 57857, this pair ranks #885,077 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of Herde vs holde
Shared letters: deh. Private to "Herde": r. Private to "holde": lo.
"Herde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "holde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Herde" for "holde" ever safe?
Which is more common, "Herde" or "holde"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "Herde" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "holde" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #885,077 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Herde" and "holde" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hola vs holde". 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 #885,077 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.