siebenvssiebenteWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#912
“sieben” frequency rank
#40,845
“siebente” frequency rank
41757
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sieben siebente
Definition die Kardinalzahl zwischen sechs und acht nach dem oder der sechsten kommend; dem/der achten vorausgehend

Where the eye mixes sieben and siebente

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. sieben runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against siebente's 8 (CVVCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
sieben
8 ch
siebente

Why the eye confuses sieben with siebente

A purely visual mix-up. sieben ([ˈziːbn̩]) and siebente ([ˈziːbn̩tə]) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “sieben” sits inside “siebente”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41757, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sieben is recorded at frequency rank #912, classified as anum, pronounced [ˈziːbn̩]. siebente is at rank #40,845, tagged as anum, pronounced [ˈziːbn̩tə].

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 41757, this pair ranks #1,470,013 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sieben vs siebente

Shared letters: beins. Private to "sieben": -. Private to "siebente": t.

"sieben" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "siebente" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sieben ← iseben · seiben · sibeen · siebben · siebenn · siebne · sieebn · ssieben
  • siebente ← isebente · seibente · sibeente · siebbente · siebenet · siebennte · siebentte · siebetne

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sieben" and "siebente" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈziːbn̩] versus [ˈziːbn̩tə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "sieben" or "siebente" show up more?
"sieben" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #912 in our German list, against #40,845 for "siebente". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "sieben" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "siebente" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,470,013 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sieben" and "siebente" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "siebente vs siebenten". 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 #1,470,013 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