LemkevslockeTell them apart

Quick tell: Lemke is a name, locke is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#35,888
“Lemke” frequency rank
#20,327
“locke” frequency rank
56215
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Lemke locke
Definition deutschsprachiger Nachname, Familienname 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs locken

Letter map: Lemke vs locke

Shared letters muted; letters that set Lemke and locke apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. Lemke and locke follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
Lemke
5 ch
locke

Part-of-speech tell for Lemke / locke

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Lemke is aname and lockeaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56215, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Lemke is recorded at frequency rank #35,888, classified as aname, pronounced […]. locke is at rank #20,327, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈlɔkə].

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 56215, this pair ranks #948,885 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Lemke vs locke

Shared letters: ekl. Private to "Lemke": m. Private to "locke": co.

"Lemke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "locke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Lemke ← elmke · lekme · lemek · lemkke · lemmke · llemke · lmeke
  • locke ← lcoke · llocke · loccke · locek · lockke · lokce · olcke

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Lemke" and "locke" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Lemke" is a name and "locke" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Lemke" vs "locke" - which ranks higher?
"locke" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,327 in our German list, against #35,888 for "Lemke". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "Lemke" and "locke".

  • Full dictionary entry for "Lemke" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "locke" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #948,885 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Lemke" and "locke" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lemke vs puzzles". 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 #948,885 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