termevsteureWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: terme is a noun, teure is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“terme” is a noun and “teure” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#49,297
“terme” frequency rank
#7,118
“teure” frequency rank
56415
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature terme teure
Definition Begriff, Wort Nominativ Singular Femininum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs teuer

Where the eye mixes terme and teure

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. terme (CVCCV) and teure (CVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
terme
5 ch
teure

Why the eye confuses terme with teure

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: terme is [tɛʁm] while teure is [ˈtɔɪ̯ʁə]. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56415, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

terme is recorded at frequency rank #49,297, classified as anoun, pronounced [tɛʁm]. teure is at rank #7,118, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈtɔɪ̯ʁə].

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 56415, this pair ranks #941,059 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of terme vs teure

Shared letters: ert. Private to "terme": m. Private to "teure": u.

"terme" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "teure" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • terme ← etrme · temre · terem · termme · terrme · treme · tterme
  • teure ← eture · tteure · tuere

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "terme" and "teure" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "terme" is a noun and "teure" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "terme" or "teure"?
"teure" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,118 in our German list, against #49,297 for "terme". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "terme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "teure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #941,059 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "terme" and "teure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "terme vs Turmes". 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 #941,059 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