HildenvshinkenTell them apart

Quick tell: Hilden is a name, hinken is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Hilden” is a name and “hinken” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#26,049
“Hilden” frequency rank
#34,733
“hinken” frequency rank
60782
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Hilden hinken
Definition eine Stadt in Nordrhein-Westfalen, Deutschland schaukelnd gehen

Where the eye mixes Hilden and hinken

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Hilden and hinken follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
Hilden
6 ch
hinken

Look-alike desk: Hilden vs hinken

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Hilden is [ˈhɪldn̩] while hinken is [ˈhɪŋkn̩]. 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 (name vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60782, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Hilden is recorded at frequency rank #26,049, classified as aname, pronounced [ˈhɪldn̩]. hinken is at rank #34,733, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈhɪŋkn̩].

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 60782, this pair ranks #774,282 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Hilden vs hinken

Shared letters: ehin. Private to "Hilden": dl. Private to "hinken": k.

"Hilden" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "hinken" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Hilden ← hhilden · hidlen · hildden · hildenn · hildne · hiledn · hillden · hliden
  • hinken ← hhinken · hiknen · hinekn · hinkenn · hinkken · hinkne · hinnken · hniken

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Hilden" for "hinken" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Hilden" is a name and "hinken" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Hilden" or "hinken" show up more?
"Hilden" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,049 in our German list, against #34,733 for "hinken". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "Hilden" and "hinken" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Hilden" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hinken" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #774,282 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Hilden" and "hinken" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hinken vs hissen". 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 #774,282 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