SuchevsSühneWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#693
“Suche” frequency rank
#41,488
“Sühne” frequency rank
42181
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Suche Sühne
Definition Prozess der Lokalisierung eines gewünschten Objektes; Bemühung mit dem Ziel, etwas Bestimmtes zu finden eine Wiedergutmachung, eine Genugtuung, eine Leistung für ein begangenes Unrecht oder ein Verschulden

Where the eye mixes Suche and Sühne

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Suche and Sühne follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
Suche
5 ch
Sühne

Look-alike desk: Suche vs Sühne

A purely visual mix-up. Suche ([ˈzuːxə]) and Sühne ([ˈzyːnə]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42181, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Suche is recorded at frequency rank #693, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈzuːxə]. Sühne is at rank #41,488, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈzyːnə].

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 42181, this pair ranks #1,457,126 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Suche vs Sühne

Shared letters: ehs. Private to "Suche": cu. Private to "Sühne": nü.

"Suche" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Sühne" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Suche ← scuhe · ssuche · sucche · suceh · suchhe · suhce · usche

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Suche" for "Sühne" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈzuːxə] versus [ˈzyːnə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Suche" or "Sühne"?
"Suche" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #693 in our German list, against #41,488 for "Sühne". 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 "Suche" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Sühne" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,457,126 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Suche" and "Sühne" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sohns vs Sühne". 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 #1,457,126 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