machinevspurposeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#12,337
“machine” frequency rank
#49,985
“purpose” frequency rank
62322
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature machine purpose
Definition ein Apparat mit vielen beweglichen Teilen; gestaltet um eine Aufgabe zu erfüllen. Absicht, Ziel, Zweck, Vorsatz

Letter map: machine vs purpose

Shared letters muted; letters that set machine and purpose apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. machine and purpose follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
machine
7 ch
purpose

Corpus notes: machine and purpose

machine and purpose are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 6 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62322, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

machine is recorded at frequency rank #12,337, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. purpose is at rank #49,985, tagged as anoun, 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 62322, this pair ranks #717,190 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of machine vs purpose

Shared letters: e. Private to "machine": achimn. Private to "purpose": oprsu.

"machine" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "purpose" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • machine ← amchine · macchine · machhine · machien · machinne · machnie · macihne · mahcine
  • purpose ← ppurpose · prupose · puprose · puropse · purpoes · purposse · purppose · purpsoe

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "machine" and "purpose" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 6 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "machine" vs "purpose" - which ranks higher?
"machine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,337 in our German list, against #49,985 for "purpose". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "machine" vs "purpose" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "machine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "purpose" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #717,190 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "machine" and "purpose" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "purpose 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 #717,190 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