Which to use
“near” is an adjective and “neck” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #33,730
- “near” frequency rank
- #45,472
- “neck” frequency rank
- 79202
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | near | neck |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | nahe | 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs necken |
Letter map: near vs neck
Shared letters muted; letters that set near and neck apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. near (CVVC) and neck (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Grammar separator: near vs neck
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: near is anadjective and neckaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79202, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
near is recorded at frequency rank #33,730, classified as anadj, pronounced […]. neck is at rank #45,472, tagged as averb, pronounced [nɛk].
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 79202, this pair ranks #221,622 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of near vs neck
Shared letters: en. Private to "near": ar. Private to "neck": ck.
"near" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "neck" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "near" and "neck" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "near" or "neck" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pair "near" vs "neck" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "near" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "neck" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #221,622 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "near" and "neck" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "neck vs nei". 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 #221,622 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.