letztevsletztereConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#452
“letzte” frequency rank
#6,216
“letztere” frequency rank
6668
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature letzte letztere
Definition in einer Reihe oder Folge auf dem einzigen Platz ohne Nachfolger sich befindend von zweien oder mehreren zuletzt genannt

Where the eye mixes letzte and letztere

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

6 ch
letzte
8 ch
letztere

Why the eye confuses letzte with letztere

A purely visual mix-up. letzte ([ˈlɛt͡stə]) and letztere ([ˈlɛt͡stəʁə]) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “letzte” sits inside “letztere”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6668, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

letzte is recorded at frequency rank #452, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈlɛt͡stə]. letztere is at rank #6,216, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈlɛt͡stəʁə].

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 6668, this pair ranks #1,990,845 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of letzte vs letztere

Shared letters: eltz. Private to "letzte": -. Private to "letztere": r.

"letzte" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV  ·  "letztere" · 8 letters · shape CVCCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • letzteeltzte · lettze · lettzte · letzet · letztte · letzzte · leztte · lletzte
  • letztereeltztere · lettzere · lettztere · letzetre · letzteer · letzterre · letztree · letzttere

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "letzte" and "letztere" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈlɛt͡stə] versus [ˈlɛt͡stəʁə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "letzte" vs "letztere" - which ranks higher?
"letzte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #452 in our German list, against #6,216 for "letztere". 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 "letzte" and "letztere" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "letzte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "letztere" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,990,845 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "letzte" and "letztere" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "letters vs letztere". 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 #1,990,845 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