NadelvsNameTell them apart

Which to use

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

#10,904
“Nadel” frequency rank
#638
“Name” frequency rank
11542
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Nadel Name
Definition längliches, dünnes Werkzeug mit Spitze, je nach Verwendungszweck unterschiedlich geformt eine eingliedrige oder mehrgliedrige, aus einem oder mehreren Worten bestehende Bezeichnung, eine zugeordnete Information, die der Identifizierung und Individualisierung dient, ein Eigenname für

Where the eye mixes Nadel and Name

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Nadel
4 ch
Name

Visual trap between Nadel and Name

A purely visual mix-up. Nadel ([ˈnaːdl̩]) and Name ([ˈnaːmə]) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11542, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Nadel is recorded at frequency rank #10,904, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈnaːdl̩]. Name is at rank #638, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈnaːmə].

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 11542, this pair ranks #1,969,344 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Nadel vs Name

Shared letters: aen. Private to "Nadel": dl. Private to "Name": m.

"Nadel" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "Name" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Nadelandel · naddel · nadell · nadle · naedl · ndael · nnadel
  • Nameanme · naem · namme · nmae · nname

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Nadel" and "Name" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈnaːdl̩] versus [ˈnaːmə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Nadel" or "Name"?
"Name" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #638 in our German list, against #10,904 for "Nadel". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Nadel" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Name" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,969,344 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Nadel" and "Name" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Nadel vs nagen". 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 #1,969,344 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