LeichenvsleichtWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Leichen is a noun, leicht is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Leichen” is a noun and “leicht” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,828
“Leichen” frequency rank
#491
“leicht” frequency rank
7319
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Leichen leicht
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Leiche ein geringes Gewicht habend

Where the eye mixes Leichen and leicht

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
Leichen
6 ch
leicht

Why the eye confuses Leichen with leicht

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Leichen is [ˈlaɪ̯çn̩] while leicht is [laɪ̯çt]. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7319, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Leichen is recorded at frequency rank #6,828, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈlaɪ̯çn̩]. leicht is at rank #491, tagged as anadj, pronounced [laɪ̯çt].

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 7319, this pair ranks #1,988,593 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Leichen vs leicht

Shared letters: cehil. Private to "Leichen": n. Private to "leicht": t.

"Leichen" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "leicht" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Leichenelichen · lecihen · leicchen · leicehn · leichenn · leichhen · leichne · leihcen
  • leichtelicht · leciht · leiccht · leichht · leichtt · leicth · leihct · liecht

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Leichen" for "leicht" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Leichen" is a noun and "leicht" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Leichen" or "leicht" show up more?
"leicht" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #491 in our German list, against #6,828 for "Leichen". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Leichen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "leicht" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,988,593 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Leichen" and "leicht" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Leichen vs Lerche". 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 #1,988,593 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