stiegvsStilenWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#2,920
“stieg” frequency rank
#49,273
“Stilen” frequency rank
52193
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature stieg Stilen
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs steigen Dativ Plural des Substantivs Stil

Where the eye mixes stieg and Stilen

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

5 ch
stieg
6 ch
Stilen

Look-alike desk: stieg vs Stilen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: stieg is [ʃtiːk] while Stilen is [ˈʃtiːlən]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52193, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

stieg is recorded at frequency rank #2,920, classified as averb, pronounced [ʃtiːk]. Stilen is at rank #49,273, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈʃtiːlən].

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 52193, this pair ranks #1,106,435 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of stieg vs Stilen

Shared letters: eist. Private to "stieg": g. Private to "Stilen": ln.

"stieg" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC  ·  "Stilen" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • stiegsiteg · sstieg · stiegg · stige · sttieg · tsieg
  • Stilensitlen · sstilen · stieln · stilenn · stilne · stlien · sttilen · tsilen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "stieg" and "Stilen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "stieg" is a verb and "Stilen" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "stieg" or "Stilen" show up more?
"stieg" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,920 in our German list, against #49,273 for "Stilen". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "stieg" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Stilen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,106,435 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "stieg" and "Stilen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Stilen vs Stuten". 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 #1,106,435 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