sinktvsSinnWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: sinkt is a verb, Sinn is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sinkt” is a verb and “Sinn” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,649
“sinkt” frequency rank
#801
“Sinn” frequency rank
6450
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sinkt Sinn
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs sinken bestimmte physiologische Fähigkeit zur Wahrnehmung von etwas

Where the eye mixes sinkt and Sinn

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. sinkt runs 5 letters (CVCCC) against Sinn's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
sinkt
4 ch
Sinn

Visual trap between sinkt and Sinn

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sinkt is [zɪŋkt] while Sinn is [zɪn]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6450, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sinkt is recorded at frequency rank #5,649, classified as averb, pronounced [zɪŋkt]. Sinn is at rank #801, tagged as anoun, pronounced [zɪn].

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 6450, this pair ranks #1,991,601 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sinkt vs Sinn

Shared letters: ins. Private to "sinkt": kt. Private to "Sinn": -.

"sinkt" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "Sinn" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sinkt ← isnkt · siknt · sinkkt · sinktt · sinnkt · sintk · snikt · ssinkt
  • Sinn ← isnn · snin · ssinn

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sinkt" and "Sinn" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sinkt" is a verb and "Sinn" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "sinkt" vs "Sinn" - which ranks higher?
"Sinn" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #801 in our German list, against #5,649 for "sinkt". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "sinkt" and "Sinn" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sinkt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Sinn" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,991,601 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sinkt" and "Sinn" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sinkt vs Sönke". 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 #1,991,601 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