matchesvsnuclearWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: matches is a verb, nuclear is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“matches” is a verb and “nuclear” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#17,983
“matches” frequency rank
#37,705
“nuclear” frequency rank
55688
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature matches nuclear
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs match nuklear, Nuklear-

Letter map: matches vs nuclear

Shared letters muted; letters that set matches and nuclear apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. matches (CVCCCVC) and nuclear (CVCCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
matches
7 ch
nuclear

Part-of-speech tell for matches / nuclear

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: matches is averb and nuclearanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 7 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55688, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

matches is recorded at frequency rank #17,983, classified as averb, pronounced […]. nuclear is at rank #37,705, tagged as anadj, 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 55688, this pair ranks #969,782 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of matches vs nuclear

Shared letters: ace. Private to "matches": hmst. Private to "nuclear": lnru.

"matches" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC  ·  "nuclear" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • matches ← amtches · macthes · matcches · matcehs · matchess · matchhes · matchse · mathces
  • nuclear ← nculear · nnuclear · nucclear · nucelar · nuclaer · nuclearr · nuclera · nucllear

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "matches" and "nuclear" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "matches" is a verb and "nuclear" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "matches" or "nuclear" show up more?
"matches" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,983 in our German list, against #37,705 for "nuclear". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "matches" and "nuclear". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "matches" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nuclear" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #969,782 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "matches" and "nuclear" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nuclear 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 #969,782 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