LackevsLucieWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Lacke is a noun, Lucie is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Lacke” is a noun and “Lucie” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#45,413
“Lacke” frequency rank
#25,653
“Lucie” frequency rank
71066
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Lacke Lucie
Definition kleine Flüssigkeitsansammlung; Ansammlung von Regenwasser, Pfütze, kleines Gewässer tschechischer weiblicher Vorname

Where the eye mixes Lacke and Lucie

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Lacke (CVCCV) and Lucie (CVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
Lacke
5 ch
Lucie

Visual trap between Lacke and Lucie

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Lacke is [ˈlakə] while Lucie is [ˈlʊt͡sɪjɛ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71066, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Lacke is recorded at frequency rank #45,413, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈlakə]. Lucie is at rank #25,653, tagged as aname, pronounced [ˈlʊt͡sɪjɛ].

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 71066, this pair ranks #427,784 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Lacke vs Lucie

Shared letters: cel. Private to "Lacke": ak. Private to "Lucie": iu.

"Lacke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Lucie" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Lacke ← alcke · laccke · lacek · lackke · lakce · lcake · llacke
  • Lucie ← lcuie · llucie · luccie · lucei · luice · ulcie

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Lacke" and "Lucie" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Lacke" is a noun and "Lucie" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Lacke" or "Lucie" show up more?
"Lucie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,653 in our German list, against #45,413 for "Lacke". 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 "Lacke" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Lucie" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #427,784 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Lacke" and "Lucie" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lacke vs lame". 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 #427,784 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