historischemvshistorischenWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#28,706
“historischem” frequency rank
#1,924
“historischen” frequency rank
30630
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature historischem historischen
Definition Dativ Singular Maskulinum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs historisch Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs historisch

Where the eye mixes historischem and historischen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 11 letters in sequence. historischem and historischen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCVCCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

12 ch
historischem
12 ch
historischen

Visual trap between historischem and historischen

A purely visual mix-up. historischem ([hɪsˈtoːʁɪʃm̩]) and historischen ([hɪsˈtoːʁɪʃn̩]) 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 a single letter - m in “historischem” becomes n in “historischen”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30630, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

historischem is recorded at frequency rank #28,706, classified as anadj, pronounced [hɪsˈtoːʁɪʃm̩]. historischen is at rank #1,924, tagged as anadj, pronounced [hɪsˈtoːʁɪʃn̩].

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 30630, this pair ranks #1,744,129 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of historischem vs historischen

Shared letters: cehiorst. Private to "historischem": m. Private to "historischen": n.

"historischem" · 12 letters · shape CVCCVCVCCCVC  ·  "historischen" · 12 letters · shape CVCCVCVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • historischem ← hhistorischem · hisotrischem · hisstorischem · histoirschem · historicshem · historiscchem · historiscehm · historischemm
  • historischen ← hhistorischen · hisotrischen · hisstorischen · histoirschen · historicshen · historiscchen · historiscehn · historischenn

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "historischem" and "historischen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([hɪsˈtoːʁɪʃm̩] versus [hɪsˈtoːʁɪʃn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "historischem" or "historischen"?
"historischen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,924 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

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "historischem" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "historischen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,744,129 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "historischem" and "historischen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "historischem vs historisches". 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 #1,744,129 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