SektevsspäteConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#14,410
“Sekte” frequency rank
#11,757
“späte” frequency rank
26167
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Sekte späte
Definition von großen Religionsgemeinschaften abgelöste kleine Glaubensgemeinschaft Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs spät

Where the eye mixes Sekte and späte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Sekte
5 ch
späte

Visual trap between Sekte and späte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Sekte is [ˈzɛktə] while späte is [ˈʃpɛːtə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26167, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Sekte is recorded at frequency rank #14,410, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈzɛktə]. späte is at rank #11,757, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈʃpɛːtə].

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 26167, this pair ranks #1,822,136 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Sekte vs späte

Shared letters: est. Private to "Sekte": k. Private to "späte": .

"Sekte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "späte" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Sekteeskte · seket · sekkte · sektte · setke · skete · ssekte

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Sekte" and "späte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Sekte" is a noun and "späte" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Sekte" or "späte" show up more?
"späte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,757 in our German list, against #14,410 for "Sekte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Sekte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "späte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,822,136 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Sekte" and "späte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sake vs Sekte". 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 #1,822,136 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