Which to use
“neck” is a verb and “nic” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #45,472
- “neck” frequency rank
- #33,733
- “nic” frequency rank
- 79205
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | neck | nic |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs necken | nichts |
Where the eye mixes neck and nic
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between neck and nic
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: neck is [nɛk] while nic is [ɲit͡s]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79205, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
neck is recorded at frequency rank #45,472, classified as averb, pronounced [nɛk]. nic is at rank #33,733, tagged as apron, pronounced [ɲit͡s].
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 79205, this pair ranks #221,566 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of neck vs nic
Shared letters: cn. Private to "neck": ek. Private to "nic": i.
"neck" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "nic" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- neck ← enck · ncek · necck · neckk · nekc · nneck
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "neck" and "nic" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "neck" or "nic" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "neck" and "nic" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "neck" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "nic" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #221,566 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "neck" and "nic" 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 #221,566 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.