stimmvsstrammTell them apart

Quick tell: stimm is a verb, stramm is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“stimm” is a verb and “stramm” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#30,305
“stimm” frequency rank
#29,807
“stramm” frequency rank
60112
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature stimm stramm
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs stimmen den Körper fest umschließend, sehr eng anliegend

Where the eye mixes stimm and stramm

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. stimm runs 5 letters (CCVCC) against stramm's 6 (CCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
stimm
6 ch
stramm

Why the eye confuses stimm with stramm

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: stimm is [ʃtɪm] while stramm is [ʃtʁam]. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60112, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

stimm is recorded at frequency rank #30,305, classified as averb, pronounced [ʃtɪm]. stramm is at rank #29,807, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ʃtʁam].

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 60112, this pair ranks #799,118 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of stimm vs stramm

Shared letters: mst. Private to "stimm": i. Private to "stramm": ar.

"stimm" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "stramm" · 6 letters · shape CCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • stimm ← sitmm · sstimm · stim · stmim · sttimm · tsimm
  • stramm ← srtamm · sstramm · starmm · stram · strmam · strramm · sttramm · tsramm

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "stimm" and "stramm" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "stimm" is a verb and "stramm" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "stimm" or "stramm" show up more?
"stramm" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,807 in our German list, against #30,305 for "stimm". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "stimm" and "stramm" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "stimm" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "stramm" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #799,118 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "stimm" and "stramm" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stemmt vs stimm". 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 #799,118 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