historischevshistorischemTell them apart

Which to use

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

#2,503
“historische” frequency rank
#28,706
“historischem” frequency rank
31209
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature historische historischem
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs historisch Dativ Singular Maskulinum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs historisch

Where the eye mixes historische and historischem

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 11 letters in sequence. historische runs 11 letters (CVCCVCVCCCV) against historischem's 12 (CVCCVCVCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

11 ch
historische
12 ch
historischem

Look-alike desk: historische vs historischem

A purely visual mix-up. historische ([hɪsˈtoːʁɪʃə]) and historischem ([hɪsˈtoːʁɪʃm̩]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “historische” sits inside “historischem”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31209, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

historische is recorded at frequency rank #2,503, classified as anadj, pronounced [hɪsˈtoːʁɪʃə]. historischem is at rank #28,706, tagged as anadj, pronounced [hɪsˈtoːʁɪʃm̩].

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 31209, this pair ranks #1,732,658 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of historische vs historischem

Shared letters: cehiorst. Private to "historische": -. Private to "historischem": m.

"historische" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCVCCCV  ·  "historischem" · 12 letters · shape CVCCVCVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • historische ← hhistorische · hisotrische · hisstorische · histoirsche · historicshe · historiscche · historisceh · historischhe
  • historischem ← hhistorischem · hisotrischem · hisstorischem · histoirschem · historicshem · historiscchem · historiscehm · historischemm

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "historische" and "historischem" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([hɪsˈtoːʁɪʃə] versus [hɪsˈtoːʁɪʃm̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "historische" vs "historischem" - which ranks higher?
"historische" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,503 in our German list, against #28,706 for "historischem". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "historische" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "historischem" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,732,658 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "historische" and "historischem" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "historische vs hysterische". 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 #1,732,658 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