StilenvsstörenWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#49,273
“Stilen” frequency rank
#4,390
“stören” frequency rank
53663
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Stilen stören
Definition Dativ Plural des Substantivs Stil jemanden bei etwas belästigen, von etwas ablenken, einen Vorgang hemmen, ein Vorhaben hemmen, ärgerlicherweise aufhalten

Where the eye mixes Stilen and stören

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

6 ch
Stilen
6 ch
stören

Why the eye confuses Stilen with stören

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Stilen is [ˈʃtiːlən] while stören is [ˈʃtøːʁən]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53663, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Stilen is recorded at frequency rank #49,273, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈʃtiːlən]. stören is at rank #4,390, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈʃtøːʁən].

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 53663, this pair ranks #1,049,250 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Stilen vs stören

Shared letters: enst. Private to "Stilen": il. Private to "stören": .

"Stilen" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "stören" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Stilensitlen · sstilen · stieln · stilenn · stilne · stlien · sttilen · tsilen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Stilen" and "stören" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Stilen" is a noun and "stören" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Stilen" or "stören"?
"stören" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,390 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.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Stilen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "stören" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,049,250 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Stilen" and "stören" 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 #1,049,250 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