PilzvspiusWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Pilz is a noun, pius is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Pilz” is a noun and “pius” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#9,962
“Pilz” frequency rank
#19,671
“pius” frequency rank
29633
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Pilz pius
Definition aus schlauchförmigen Fäden bestehender Organismus ohne Blattgrün (Reich Fungi); hat sowohl tierische als auch pflanzliche Eigenschaften seinen eigenen moralischen Verpflichtungen nachkommend; pflichtbewusst, gewissenhaft, pflichtgetreu

Letter map: Pilz vs pius

Shared letters muted; letters that set Pilz and pius apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
Pilz
4 ch
pius

Role in the sentence - Pilz and pius

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Pilz is anoun and piusanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29633, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Pilz is recorded at frequency rank #9,962, classified as anoun, pronounced [pɪlt͡s]. pius is at rank #19,671, tagged as anadj.

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 29633, this pair ranks #1,763,224 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Pilz vs pius

Shared letters: ip. Private to "Pilz": lz. Private to "pius": su.

"Pilz" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "pius" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Pilziplz · pillz · pilzz · pizl · pliz · ppilz
  • piusipus · pisu · piuss · ppius · puis

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Pilz" and "pius" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Pilz" is a noun and "pius" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Pilz" or "pius"?
"Pilz" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,962 in our German list, against #19,671 for "pius". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "Pilz" and "pius".

  • Full dictionary entry for "Pilz" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pius" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,763,224 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Pilz" and "pius" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pius vs PMS". 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 #1,763,224 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