stickvsstrickeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#10,572
“stick” frequency rank
#40,867
“stricke” frequency rank
51439
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature stick stricke
Definition 2. Person Singular Präsens Imperativ Aktiv des Verbs sticken 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs stricken

Where the eye mixes stick and stricke

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. stick runs 5 letters (CCVCC) against stricke's 7 (CCCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
stick
7 ch
stricke

Look-alike desk: stick vs stricke

A purely visual mix-up. stick ([ʃtɪk]) and stricke ([ˈʃtʁɪkə]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51439, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

stick is recorded at frequency rank #10,572, classified as averb, pronounced [ʃtɪk]. stricke is at rank #40,867, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈʃtʁɪkə].

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 51439, this pair ranks #1,135,506 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of stick vs stricke

Shared letters: cikst. Private to "stick": -. Private to "stricke": er.

"stick" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "stricke" · 7 letters · shape CCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • stick ← sitck · sstick · stcik · sticck · stickk · stikc · sttick · tsick
  • stricke ← srticke · sstricke · stircke · strcike · striccke · stricek · strickke · strikce

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "stick" for "stricke" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ʃtɪk] versus [ˈʃtʁɪkə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "stick" or "stricke" show up more?
"stick" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,572 in our German list, against #40,867 for "stricke". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "stick" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "stricke" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,135,506 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "stick" and "stricke" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stricke vs struck". 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 #1,135,506 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