palmvsPsalmConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#18,649
“palm” frequency rank
#19,352
“Psalm” frequency rank
38001
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature palm Psalm
Definition innere Fläche der Hand, zwischen Handwurzel und Fingern; Mittelhand, Handfläche Gebet/Lied aus dem Buch der Psalmen, dem Psalter

Where the eye mixes palm and Psalm

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. palm runs 4 letters (CVCC) against Psalm's 5 (CCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
palm
5 ch
Psalm

Visual trap between palm and Psalm

A purely visual mix-up. palm ([pɑːm]) and Psalm ([psalm]) 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 38001, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

palm is recorded at frequency rank #18,649, classified as anoun, pronounced [pɑːm]. Psalm is at rank #19,352, tagged as anoun, pronounced [psalm].

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 38001, this pair ranks #1,575,478 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of palm vs Psalm

Shared letters: almp. Private to "palm": -. Private to "Psalm": s.

"palm" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "Psalm" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • palm ← aplm · pallm · palmm · paml · plam · ppalm
  • Psalm ← paslm · ppsalm · psallm · psalmm · psaml · pslam · pssalm · spalm

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "palm" for "Psalm" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([pɑːm] versus [psalm]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "palm" vs "Psalm" - which ranks higher?
"palm" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,649 in our German list, against #19,352 for "Psalm". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "palm" and "Psalm" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "palm" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Psalm" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,575,478 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "palm" and "Psalm" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "palm vs Pau". 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 #1,575,478 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