Which to use
“senken” and “stinken” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,879
- “senken” frequency rank
- #22,520
- “stinken” frequency rank
- 28399
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | senken | stinken |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | in eine niedrigere Position bringen | (sehr) übel schlecht riechen, üblen Geruch verbreiten |
Where the eye mixes senken and stinken
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. senken runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against stinken's 7 (CCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between senken and stinken
A purely visual mix-up. senken ([ˈzɛŋkn̩]) and stinken ([ˈʃtɪŋkn̩]) 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 28399, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
senken is recorded at frequency rank #5,879, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈzɛŋkn̩]. stinken is at rank #22,520, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈʃtɪŋkn̩].
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 28399, this pair ranks #1,785,461 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of senken vs stinken
Shared letters: ekns. Private to "senken": -. Private to "stinken": it.
"senken" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "stinken" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "senken" for "stinken" ever safe?
Frequency check: "senken" vs "stinken" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "senken" and "stinken" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "senken" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "stinken" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,785,461 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "senken" and "stinken" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Stilen vs stinken". 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 #1,785,461 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.