Which to use
“steel” is a noun and “steil” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #21,781
- “steel” frequency rank
- #9,636
- “steil” frequency rank
- 31417
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | steel | steil |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Stahl | von der Waagerechten stark abweichend, entweder ansteigend oder abfallend (auch figurativ) |
Letter map: steel vs steil
Shared letters muted; letters that set steel and steil apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.
Part-of-speech tell for steel / steil
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: steel is anoun and steilanadjective. On the page they differ by a single letter - e in “steel” becomes i in “steil”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31417, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
steel is recorded at frequency rank #21,781, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. steil is at rank #9,636, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ʃtaɪ̯l].
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 31417, this pair ranks #1,728,546 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of steel vs steil
Shared letters: elst. Private to "steel": -. Private to "steil": i.
"steel" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC · "steil" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "steel" and "steil" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "steel" or "steil"?
After this comparison
Pair "steel" vs "steil" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "steel" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "steil" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,728,546 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "steel" and "steil" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs steel". 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 #1,728,546 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.