Which to use
“sole” is a noun and “sone” is an unknown - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #27,493
- “sole” frequency rank
- #33,303
- “sone” frequency rank
- 60796
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sole | sone |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | nächster Stern zur Erde und Zentrum unseres Sonnensystems; Sonne | Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Pronomens son |
Where the eye mixes sole and sone
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between sole and sone
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sole is [ˈsole] while sone is [ˈzoːnə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - l in “sole” becomes n in “sone”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs unknown), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60796, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sole is recorded at frequency rank #27,493, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈsole]. sone is at rank #33,303, tagged as anunknown, pronounced [ˈzoːnə].
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 60796, this pair ranks #773,739 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of sole vs sone
Shared letters: eos. Private to "sole": l. Private to "sone": n.
"sole" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "sone" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "sole" for "sone" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "sole" or "sone" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "sole" and "sone" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "sole" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sone" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #773,739 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sole" and "sone" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sonar vs sone". 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 #773,739 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.