Which to use
“ideal” and “ideale” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,708
- “ideal” frequency rank
- #5,966
- “ideale” frequency rank
- 10674
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ideal | ideale |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | passend, genau richtig, sehr geeignet oder mustergültig seiend | Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs ideal |
Where the eye mixes ideal and ideale
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. ideal runs 5 letters (VCVVC) against ideale's 6 (VCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: ideal vs ideale
A purely visual mix-up. ideal ([ideˈʔaːl]) and ideale ([ideˈʔaːlə]) 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) - “ideal” sits inside “ideale”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10674, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ideal is recorded at frequency rank #4,708, classified as anadj, pronounced [ideˈʔaːl]. ideale is at rank #5,966, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ideˈʔaːlə].
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 10674, this pair ranks #1,973,925 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of ideal vs ideale
Shared letters: adeil. Private to "ideal": -. Private to "ideale": -.
"ideal" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC · "ideale" · 6 letters · shape VCVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ideal" for "ideale" ever safe?
Which is more common, "ideal" or "ideale"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "ideal" and "ideale" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "ideal" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ideale" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,973,925 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ideal" and "ideale" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ideale vs idole". 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 #1,973,925 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.