PhilippvsPhilippsConfusable pair

Quick tell: Philipp is a name, Philipps is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Philipp” is a name and “Philipps” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,608
“Philipp” frequency rank
#25,708
“Philipps” frequency rank
28316
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Philipp Philipps
Definition männlicher Vorname Genitiv Singular des Substantivs Philipp

Where the eye mixes Philipp and Philipps

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

7 ch
Philipp
8 ch
Philipps

Look-alike desk: Philipp vs Philipps

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Philipp is [ˈfɪlɪp] while Philipps is [ˈfɪlɪps]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “Philipp” sits inside “Philipps”, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28316, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Philipp is recorded at frequency rank #2,608, classified as aname, pronounced [ˈfɪlɪp]. Philipps is at rank #25,708, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈfɪlɪps].

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 28316, this pair ranks #1,786,944 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Philipp vs Philipps

Shared letters: hilp. Private to "Philipp": -. Private to "Philipps": s.

"Philipp" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC  ·  "Philipps" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Philipphpilipp · phhilipp · phiilpp · phillipp · philpip · phliipp · pihlipp · pphilipp
  • Philippshpilipps · phhilipps · phiilpps · philippss · philips · philipsp · phillipps · philpips

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Philipp" and "Philipps" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Philipp" is a name and "Philipps" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Philipp" or "Philipps" show up more?
"Philipp" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,608 in our German list, against #25,708 for "Philipps". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Philipp" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Philipps" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,786,944 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Philipp" and "Philipps" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Philippi vs Philipps". 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 #1,786,944 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