StammvsstemmtTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#5,765
“Stamm” frequency rank
#48,510
“stemmt” frequency rank
54275
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Stamm stemmt
Definition Teil des Baumes zwischen Wurzel und Krone 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs stemmen

Where the eye mixes Stamm and stemmt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Stamm
6 ch
stemmt

Visual trap between Stamm and stemmt

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Stamm is [ʃtam] while stemmt is [ʃtɛmt]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54275, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Stamm is recorded at frequency rank #5,765, classified as anoun, pronounced [ʃtam]. stemmt is at rank #48,510, tagged as averb, pronounced [ʃtɛmt].

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 54275, this pair ranks #1,025,155 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Stamm vs stemmt

Shared letters: mst. Private to "Stamm": a. Private to "stemmt": e.

"Stamm" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "stemmt" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Stammsatmm · sstamm · stam · stmam · sttamm · tsamm
  • stemmtsetmmt · sstemmt · stemmtt · stemt · stemtm · stmemt · sttemmt · tsemmt

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Stamm" for "stemmt" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Stamm" is a noun and "stemmt" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Stamm" or "stemmt" show up more?
"Stamm" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,765 in our German list, against #48,510 for "stemmt". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Stamm" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "stemmt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,025,155 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Stamm" and "stemmt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stemmt vs streamt". 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 #1,025,155 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