kritischvskritischerWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#3,465
“kritisch” frequency rank
#11,467
“kritischer” frequency rank
14932
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature kritisch kritischer
Definition bedrohlich, entscheidend Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs kritisch

Where the eye mixes kritisch and kritischer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. kritisch runs 8 letters (CCVCVCCC) against kritischer's 10 (CCVCVCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
kritisch
10 ch
kritischer

Why the eye confuses kritisch with kritischer

A purely visual mix-up. kritisch ([ˈkʁiːtɪʃ]) and kritischer ([ˈkʁiːtɪʃɐ]) 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) - “kritisch” sits inside “kritischer”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14932, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

kritisch is recorded at frequency rank #3,465, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈkʁiːtɪʃ]. kritischer is at rank #11,467, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈkʁiːtɪʃɐ].

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 14932, this pair ranks #1,947,684 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of kritisch vs kritischer

Shared letters: chikrst. Private to "kritisch": -. Private to "kritischer": e.

"kritisch" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCCC  ·  "kritischer" · 10 letters · shape CCVCVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • kritisch ← kirtisch · kkritisch · kriitsch · kriticsh · kritiscch · kritischh · kritishc · kritissch
  • kritischer ← kirtischer · kkritischer · kriitscher · kriticsher · kritisccher · kritiscehr · kritischerr · kritischher

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "kritisch" for "kritischer" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈkʁiːtɪʃ] versus [ˈkʁiːtɪʃɐ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "kritisch" vs "kritischer" - which ranks higher?
"kritisch" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,465 in our German list, against #11,467 for "kritischer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "kritisch" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "kritischer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,947,684 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "kritisch" and "kritischer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "kritischem vs kritischer". 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 #1,947,684 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