historischevshysterischeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#2,503
“historische” frequency rank
#39,431
“hysterische” frequency rank
41934
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature historische hysterische
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs historisch Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs hysterisch

Where the eye mixes historische and hysterische

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. historische and hysterische follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCVCCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

11 ch
historische
11 ch
hysterische

Look-alike desk: historische vs hysterische

A purely visual mix-up. historische ([hɪsˈtoːʁɪʃə]) and hysterische ([hʏsˈteːʁɪʃə]) 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 41934, 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]. hysterische is at rank #39,431, tagged as anadj, pronounced [hʏsˈteːʁɪʃə].

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 41934, this pair ranks #1,464,636 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of historische vs hysterische

Shared letters: cehirst. Private to "historische": o. Private to "hysterische": y.

"historische" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCVCCCV  ·  "hysterische" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • historische ← hhistorische · hisotrische · hisstorische · histoirsche · historicshe · historiscche · historisceh · historischhe
  • hysterische ← hhysterische · hsyterische · hysetrische · hyssterische · hysteirsche · hystericshe · hysteriscche · hysterisceh

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "historische" and "hysterische" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([hɪsˈtoːʁɪʃə] versus [hʏsˈteːʁɪʃə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "historische" or "hysterische" show up more?
"historische" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,503 in our German list, against #39,431 for "hysterische". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "historische" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hysterische" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,464,636 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "historische" and "hysterische" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hysterisch 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 #1,464,636 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