killingvslamaWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: killing is a verb, lama is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“killing” is a verb and “lama” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,029
“killing” frequency rank
#17,641
“lama” frequency rank
57670
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature killing lama
Definition Partizip Präsens (present participle) des Verbs kill alt

Letter map: killing vs lama

Shared letters muted; letters that set killing and lama apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. killing runs 7 letters (CVCCVCC) against lama's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
killing
4 ch
lama

Role in the sentence - killing and lama

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: killing is averb and lamaanadjective. On the page they differ by 3 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57670, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

killing is recorded at frequency rank #40,029, classified as averb, pronounced […]. lama is at rank #17,641, tagged as anadj, pronounced […].

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 57670, this pair ranks #892,276 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of killing vs lama

Shared letters: l. Private to "killing": gikn. Private to "lama": am.

"killing" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "lama" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • killingiklling · kililng · kiling · killign · killingg · killinng · killnig · kkilling
  • lamalaam · lamma · llama · lmaa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "killing" for "lama" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "killing" is a verb and "lama" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "killing" or "lama"?
"lama" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,641 in our German list, against #40,029 for "killing". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "killing" and "lama".

  • Full dictionary entry for "killing" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lama" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #892,276 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "killing" and "lama" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "killing vs puzzles". 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 #892,276 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