Which to use
“seal” and “seel” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #32,260
- “seal” frequency rank
- #46,271
- “seel” frequency rank
- 78531
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | seal | seel |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | dichten, abdichten | 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs seelen |
Where the eye mixes seal and seel
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. seal and seel follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: seal vs seel
A purely visual mix-up. seal ([siːl]) and seel ([zeːl]) 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 a single letter - a in “seal” becomes e in “seel”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78531, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
seal is recorded at frequency rank #32,260, classified as averb, pronounced [siːl]. seel is at rank #46,271, tagged as averb, pronounced [zeːl].
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 78531, this pair ranks #236,264 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of seal vs seel
Shared letters: els. Private to "seal": a. Private to "seel": -.
"seal" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "seel" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "seal" and "seel" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "seal" or "seel" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "seal" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "seel" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #236,264 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "seal" and "seel" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "seel vs seg". 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 #236,264 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.