LeitervsletterWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,637
“Leiter” frequency rank
#29,681
“letter” frequency rank
31318
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Leiter letter
Definition Person, die etwas leitet beziehungsweise als verantwortlicher Vorgesetzter in leitender Position steht Brief

Where the eye mixes Leiter and letter

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

6 ch
Leiter
6 ch
letter

Look-alike desk: Leiter vs letter

A purely visual mix-up. Leiter ([ˈlaɪ̯tɐ]) and letter ([letə(r)]) 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 a single letter - i in “Leiter” becomes t in “letter”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31318, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Leiter is recorded at frequency rank #1,637, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈlaɪ̯tɐ]. letter is at rank #29,681, tagged as anoun, pronounced [letə(r)].

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 31318, this pair ranks #1,730,553 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Leiter vs letter

Shared letters: elrt. Private to "Leiter": i. Private to "letter": -.

"Leiter" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "letter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Leitereliter · leietr · leiterr · leitre · leitter · letier · lieter · lleiter
  • lettereltter · leter · letetr · letterr · lettre · lletter · lteter

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Leiter" for "letter" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈlaɪ̯tɐ] versus [letə(r)]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Leiter" or "letter"?
"Leiter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,637 in our German list, against #29,681 for "letter". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "Leiter" and "letter" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Leiter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "letter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,730,553 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Leiter" and "letter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "letten vs letter". 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 #1,730,553 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