intelligentvsintelligenterTell them apart

Which to use

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

#8,397
“intelligent” frequency rank
#17,040
“intelligenter” frequency rank
25437
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature intelligent intelligenter
Definition geistig begabt, von guter Auffassungsgabe, einsichtig, klug, Beziehungen kennend Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs intelligent

Where the eye mixes intelligent and intelligenter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 11 letters in sequence. intelligent runs 11 letters (VCCVCCVCVCC) against intelligenter's 13 (VCCVCCVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

11 ch
intelligent
13 ch
intelligenter

Look-alike desk: intelligent vs intelligenter

A purely visual mix-up. intelligent ([ɪntɛliˈɡɛnt]) and intelligenter ([ɪntɛliˈɡɛntɐ]) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “intelligent” sits inside “intelligenter”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25437, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

intelligent is recorded at frequency rank #8,397, classified as anadj, pronounced [ɪntɛliˈɡɛnt]. intelligenter is at rank #17,040, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ɪntɛliˈɡɛntɐ].

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 25437, this pair ranks #1,833,310 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of intelligent vs intelligenter

Shared letters: egilnt. Private to "intelligent": -. Private to "intelligenter": r.

"intelligent" · 11 letters · shape VCCVCCVCVCC  ·  "intelligenter" · 13 letters · shape VCCVCCVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • intelligent ← inetlligent · inntelligent · inteligent · intelilgent · intellgient · intelliegnt · intelligennt · intelligentt
  • intelligenter ← inetlligenter · inntelligenter · inteligenter · intelilgenter · intellgienter · intelliegnter · intelligenetr · intelligennter

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "intelligent" and "intelligenter" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ɪntɛliˈɡɛnt] versus [ɪntɛliˈɡɛntɐ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "intelligent" or "intelligenter" show up more?
"intelligent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,397 in our German list, against #17,040 for "intelligenter". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "intelligent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "intelligenter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,833,310 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "intelligent" and "intelligenter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "intelligenter vs intelligentes". 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 #1,833,310 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