SöldnervssoliderWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#17,147
“Söldner” frequency rank
#30,290
“solider” frequency rank
47437
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Söldner solider
Definition gegen Bezahlung angeworbener, zeitlich (und vertraglich) befristet dienender Angehöriger einer aus freiwilligen, zumeist fremdländischen Soldaten bestehenden Truppe Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs solide

Where the eye mixes Söldner and solider

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
Söldner
7 ch
solider

Visual trap between Söldner and solider

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Söldner is [ˈzœldnɐ] while solider is [zoˈliːdɐ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 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 47437, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Söldner is recorded at frequency rank #17,147, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈzœldnɐ]. solider is at rank #30,290, tagged as anadj, pronounced [zoˈliːdɐ].

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 47437, this pair ranks #1,284,215 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Söldner vs solider

Shared letters: delrs. Private to "Söldner": . Private to "solider": io.

"Söldner" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC  ·  "solider" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • solideroslider · sloider · soilder · soldier · solidder · soliderr · solidre · soliedr

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Söldner" and "solider" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Söldner" is a noun and "solider" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Söldner" or "solider"?
"Söldner" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,147 in our German list, against #30,290 for "solider". 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 "Söldner" and "solider" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Söldner" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "solider" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,284,215 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Söldner" and "solider" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "solider vs Solinger". 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 #1,284,215 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