Which to use
“Piercing” and “Piercings” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #33,229
- “Piercing” frequency rank
- #44,130
- “Piercings” frequency rank
- 77359
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Piercing | Piercings |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | das Durchstechen von Körperstellen, um Schmuckstücke anzubringen | Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Piercing |
Where the eye mixes Piercing and Piercings
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. Piercing runs 8 letters (CVVCCVCC) against Piercings's 9 (CVVCCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between Piercing and Piercings
A purely visual mix-up. Piercing ([ˈpiːɐ̯sɪŋ]) and Piercings ([ˈpiːɐ̯sɪŋs]) 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 extra letter(s) - “Piercing” sits inside “Piercings”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77359, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Piercing is recorded at frequency rank #33,229, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈpiːɐ̯sɪŋ]. Piercings is at rank #44,130, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈpiːɐ̯sɪŋs].
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 77359, this pair ranks #262,529 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of Piercing vs Piercings
Shared letters: ceginpr. Private to "Piercing": -. Private to "Piercings": s.
"Piercing" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCC · "Piercings" · 9 letters · shape CVVCCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "Piercing" and "Piercings" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary German text, does "Piercing" or "Piercings" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "Piercing" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Piercings" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #262,529 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- 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 #262,529 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.