machinevsmovesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: machine is a noun, moves is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“machine” is a noun and “moves” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#12,337
“machine” frequency rank
#36,510
“moves” frequency rank
48847
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature machine moves
Definition ein Apparat mit vielen beweglichen Teilen; gestaltet um eine Aufgabe zu erfüllen. 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs move

Letter map: machine vs moves

Shared letters muted; letters that set machine and moves apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. machine runs 7 letters (CVCCVCV) against moves's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
machine
5 ch
moves

Role in the sentence - machine and moves

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: machine is anoun and movesaverb. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48847, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

machine is recorded at frequency rank #12,337, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. moves is at rank #36,510, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

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 48847, this pair ranks #1,233,389 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of machine vs moves

Shared letters: em. Private to "machine": achin. Private to "moves": osv.

"machine" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "moves" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • machineamchine · macchine · machhine · machien · machinne · machnie · macihne · mahcine
  • movesmmoves · moevs · movess · movse · movves · mvoes · omves

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "machine" for "moves" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "machine" is a noun and "moves" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "machine" vs "moves" - which ranks higher?
"machine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,337 in our German list, against #36,510 for "moves". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "machine" and "moves". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "machine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "moves" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,233,389 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "machine" and "moves" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moves 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 #1,233,389 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