spielsvssportsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#5,427
“spiels” frequency rank
#7,990
“sports” frequency rank
13417
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature spiels sports
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs spiel 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs sport

Letter map: spiels vs sports

Shared letters muted; letters that set spiels and sports apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. spiels (CCVVCC) and sports (CCVCCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
spiels
6 ch
sports

Pair insight - spiels / sports

spiels and sports are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13417, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

spiels is recorded at frequency rank #5,427, classified as averb, pronounced […]. sports is at rank #7,990, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

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 13417, this pair ranks #1,958,123 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of spiels vs sports

Shared letters: ps. Private to "spiels": eil. Private to "sports": ort.

"spiels" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC  ·  "sports" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • spiels ← psiels · sipels · speils · spiells · spielss · spiesl · spiles · sppiels
  • sports ← psorts · soprts · sporrts · sporst · sportss · sportts · spotrs · spports

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "spiels" for "sports" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "spiels" vs "sports" - which ranks higher?
"spiels" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,427 in our German list, against #7,990 for "sports". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "spiels" and "sports". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "spiels" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sports" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,958,123 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "spiels" and "sports" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs sports". 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 #1,958,123 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