pipevsPisWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#44,135
“pipe” frequency rank
#38,949
“Pis” frequency rank
83084
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pipe Pis
Definition Röhre, Rohr Genitiv Singular des Substantivs Pi

Where the eye mixes pipe and Pis

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
pipe
3 ch
Pis

Look-alike desk: pipe vs Pis

A purely visual mix-up. pipe ([paɪp]) and Pis ([piːs]) 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 83084, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pipe is recorded at frequency rank #44,135, classified as anoun, pronounced [paɪp]. Pis is at rank #38,949, tagged as anoun, pronounced [piːs].

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 83084, this pair ranks #145,908 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pipe vs Pis

Shared letters: ip. Private to "pipe": e. Private to "Pis": s.

"pipe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Pis" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pipeippe · pippe · ppie · ppipe

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pipe" and "Pis" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([paɪp] versus [piːs]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "pipe" vs "Pis" - which ranks higher?
"Pis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #38,949 in our German list, against #44,135 for "pipe". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pipe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Pis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #145,908 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pipe" and "Pis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pig vs pipe". 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 #145,908 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