hugvsHulkTell them apart

Which to use

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

#25,600
“hug” frequency rank
#20,956
“Hulk” frequency rank
46556
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hug Hulk
Definition die Umarmung: das Legen von Armen um jemanden Schiff ohne eigenen Antrieb

Where the eye mixes hug and Hulk

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
hug
4 ch
Hulk

Visual trap between hug and Hulk

A purely visual mix-up. hug ([hʌɡ]) and Hulk ([hʊlk]) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46556, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hug is recorded at frequency rank #25,600, classified as anoun, pronounced [hʌɡ]. Hulk is at rank #20,956, tagged as anoun, pronounced [hʊlk].

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 46556, this pair ranks #1,315,021 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hug vs Hulk

Shared letters: hu. Private to "hug": g. Private to "Hulk": kl.

"hug" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "Hulk" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Hulkhhulk · hluk · hukl · hulkk · hullk · uhlk

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "hug" and "Hulk" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([hʌɡ] versus [hʊlk]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "hug" or "Hulk" show up more?
"Hulk" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,956 in our German list, against #25,600 for "hug". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "hug" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Hulk" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,315,021 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hug" and "Hulk" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "höh vs hug". 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 #1,315,021 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