Lemke vs Lesbe, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#35,888
“Lemke” frequency rank: #39,511
“Lesbe” frequency rank: 75399
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	Lemke	Lesbe
Definition	deutschsprachiger Nachname, Familienname	Frau, die homosexuelle Neigungen besitzt, lesbisch ist

Letter map: Lemke vs Lesbe

Shared letters muted; letters that set Lemke and Lesbe apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch

Lemke

5 ch

Lesbe

Role in the sentence - Lemke and Lesbe

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Lemke is aname and Lesbeanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75399, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Lemke is recorded at frequency rank #35,888, classified as aname, pronounced […]. Lesbe is at rank #39,511, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈlɛsbə].

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 75399, this pair ranks #308,956 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Lemke vs Lesbe

Shared letters: el. Private to "Lemke": km. Private to "Lesbe": bs.

"Lemke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "Lesbe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

Lemke ← elmke · lekme · lemek · lemkke · lemmke · llemke · lmeke
Lesbe ← elsbe · lebse · lesbbe · leseb · lessbe · llesbe · lsebe

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Lemke" and "Lesbe" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Lemke" is a name and "Lesbe" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "Lemke" or "Lesbe"?

"Lemke" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,888 in our German list, against #39,511 for "Lesbe". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "Lemke" vs "Lesbe" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "Lemke" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "Lesbe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #308,956 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"Lemke" and "Lesbe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Leibes vs Lesbe". 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 #308,956 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.