Which to use
“Kreis” is a noun and “kreise” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #861
- “Kreis” frequency rank
- #5,508
- “kreise” frequency rank
- 6369
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Kreis | kreise |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | geometrischer Ort aller Punkte, die von einem gegebenen Punkt, dem (Kreis-)Mittelpunkt, den gleichen Abstand haben, genannt (Kreis-)Radius | 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs kreisen |
Where the eye mixes Kreis and kreise
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between Kreis and kreise
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Kreis is [kʁaɪ̯s] while kreise is [ˈkʁaɪ̯zə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “Kreis” sits inside “kreise”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6369, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Kreis is recorded at frequency rank #861, classified as anoun, pronounced [kʁaɪ̯s]. kreise is at rank #5,508, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈkʁaɪ̯zə].
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 6369, this pair ranks #1,991,889 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of Kreis vs kreise
Shared letters: eikrs. Private to "Kreis": -. Private to "kreise": -.
"Kreis" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC · "kreise" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "Kreis" and "kreise" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary German text, does "Kreis" or "kreise" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "Kreis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "kreise" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,991,889 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Kreis" and "kreise" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Krebse vs kreise". 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 #1,991,889 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.