kreisevsKremsWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: kreise is a verb, Krems is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“kreise” is a verb and “Krems” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,508
“kreise” frequency rank
#22,804
“Krems” frequency rank
28312
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature kreise Krems
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs kreisen Krems an der Donau; Stadtgemeinde in Niederösterreich

Where the eye mixes kreise and Krems

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. kreise runs 6 letters (CCVVCV) against Krems's 5 (CCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
kreise
5 ch
Krems

Visual trap between kreise and Krems

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: kreise is [ˈkʁaɪ̯zə] while Krems is [kʁɛms]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28312, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

kreise is recorded at frequency rank #5,508, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈkʁaɪ̯zə]. Krems is at rank #22,804, tagged as aname, pronounced [kʁɛms].

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 28312, this pair ranks #1,787,020 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of kreise vs Krems

Shared letters: ekrs. Private to "kreise": i. Private to "Krems": m.

"kreise" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV  ·  "Krems" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • kreisekerise · kkreise · kreies · kreisse · kresie · kriese · krreise · rkeise
  • Kremskerms · kkrems · kremms · kremss · kresm · krmes · krrems · rkems

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "kreise" and "Krems" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "kreise" is a verb and "Krems" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "kreise" or "Krems" show up more?
"kreise" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,508 in our German list, against #22,804 for "Krems". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "kreise" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Krems" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,787,020 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "kreise" and "Krems" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Krebse vs Krems". 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 #1,787,020 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