hockenvsHöhlenTell them apart

Quick tell: hocken is a verb, Höhlen is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hocken” is a verb and “Höhlen” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#20,298
“hocken” frequency rank
#12,311
“Höhlen” frequency rank
32609
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hocken Höhlen
Definition mit stark angewinkelten Knien aufrecht sitzen Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Höhle

Where the eye mixes hocken and Höhlen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. hocken and Höhlen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
hocken
6 ch
Höhlen

Visual trap between hocken and Höhlen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hocken is [ˈhɔkn̩] while Höhlen is [ˈhøːlən]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32609, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hocken is recorded at frequency rank #20,298, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈhɔkn̩]. Höhlen is at rank #12,311, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈhøːlən].

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 32609, this pair ranks #1,703,953 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of hocken vs Höhlen

Shared letters: ehn. Private to "hocken": cko. Private to "Höhlen": lö.

"hocken" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Höhlen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hocken ← hcoken · hhocken · hoccken · hocekn · hockenn · hockken · hockne · hokcen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "hocken" and "Höhlen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hocken" is a verb and "Höhlen" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "hocken" or "Höhlen"?
"Höhlen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,311 in our German list, against #20,298 for "hocken". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "hocken" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Höhlen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,703,953 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hocken" and "Höhlen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Hackern vs hocken". 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 #1,703,953 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