Which to use
“police” and “Polizei” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #12,560
- “police” frequency rank
- #361
- “Polizei” frequency rank
- 12921
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | police | Polizei |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Polizei | für die öffentliche Sicherheit und Ordnung zuständige Behörde |
Where the eye mixes police and Polizei
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. police runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against Polizei's 7 (CVCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses police with Polizei
A purely visual mix-up. police ([pəˈliːs]) and Polizei ([poliˈt͡saɪ̯]) 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 12921, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
police is recorded at frequency rank #12,560, classified as anoun, pronounced [pəˈliːs]. Polizei is at rank #361, tagged as anoun, pronounced [poliˈt͡saɪ̯].
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 12921, this pair ranks #1,961,207 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of police vs Polizei
Shared letters: eilop. Private to "police": c. Private to "Polizei": z.
"police" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "Polizei" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "police" for "Polizei" ever safe?
Which is more common, "police" or "Polizei"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "police" and "Polizei" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "police" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Polizei" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,961,207 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "police" and "Polizei" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "police vs Polio". 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 #1,961,207 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.