herminevsHormoneWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#24,379
“hermine” frequency rank
#16,733
“Hormone” frequency rank
41112
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hermine Hormone
Definition Hermelin Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Hormon

Where the eye mixes hermine and Hormone

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. hermine and Hormone follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
hermine
7 ch
Hormone

Why the eye confuses hermine with Hormone

A purely visual mix-up. hermine ([ɛʁ.min]) and Hormone ([hɔʁˈmoːnə]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41112, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hermine is recorded at frequency rank #24,379, classified as anoun, pronounced [ɛʁ.min]. Hormone is at rank #16,733, tagged as anoun, pronounced [hɔʁˈmoːnə].

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 41112, this pair ranks #1,488,991 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hermine vs Hormone

Shared letters: ehmnr. Private to "hermine": i. Private to "Hormone": o.

"hermine" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "Hormone" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hermine ← ehrmine · hemrine · herimne · hermien · herminne · hermmine · hermnie · herrmine
  • Hormone ← hhormone · homrone · hormmone · hormnoe · hormoen · hormonne · horomne · horrmone

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hermine" for "Hormone" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ɛʁ.min] versus [hɔʁˈmoːnə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "hermine" vs "Hormone" - which ranks higher?
"Hormone" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,733 in our German list, against #24,379 for "hermine". 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 "hermine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Hormone" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,488,991 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hermine" and "Hormone" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Hormone vs Hormonen". 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 #1,488,991 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