SenkevsSenseWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#32,265
“Senke” frequency rank
#17,129
“Sense” frequency rank
49394
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Senke Sense
Definition flache Vertiefung im Boden scharfes Werkzeug mit langem Stiel zum Mähen von Gras, Getreide und Ähnlichem

Where the eye mixes Senke and Sense

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Senke and Sense follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
Senke
5 ch
Sense

Visual trap between Senke and Sense

A purely visual mix-up. Senke ([ˈzɛŋkə]) and Sense ([ˈzɛnzə]) 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 - k in “Senke” becomes s in “Sense”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49394, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Senke is recorded at frequency rank #32,265, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈzɛŋkə]. Sense is at rank #17,129, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈzɛnzə].

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 49394, this pair ranks #1,213,193 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Senke vs Sense

Shared letters: ens. Private to "Senke": k. Private to "Sense": -.

"Senke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Sense" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Senke ← esnke · sekne · senek · senkke · sennke · sneke · ssenke
  • Sense ← esnse · senes · sennse · sensse · sesne · snese · ssense

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Senke" and "Sense" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈzɛŋkə] versus [ˈzɛnzə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Senke" vs "Sense" - which ranks higher?
"Sense" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,129 in our German list, against #32,265 for "Senke". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Senke" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Sense" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,213,193 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Senke" and "Sense" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sake vs Senke". 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 #1,213,193 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