termevsThermeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#49,297
“terme” frequency rank
#21,085
“Therme” frequency rank
70382
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature terme Therme
Definition Begriff, Wort eine öffentliche römische Badeanlage

Where the eye mixes terme and Therme

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

5 ch
terme
6 ch
Therme

Visual trap between terme and Therme

A purely visual mix-up. terme ([tɛʁm]) and Therme ([ˈtɛʁmə]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70382, 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]. Therme is at rank #21,085, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈtɛʁmə].

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 70382, this pair ranks #448,045 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of terme vs Therme

Shared letters: emrt. Private to "terme": -. Private to "Therme": h.

"terme" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Therme" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • terme ← etrme · temre · terem · termme · terrme · treme · tterme
  • Therme ← hterme · tehrme · themre · therem · thermme · therrme · thherme · threme

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "terme" for "Therme" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([tɛʁm] versus [ˈtɛʁmə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "terme" or "Therme" show up more?
"Therme" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,085 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.

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 "terme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Therme" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #448,045 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "terme" and "Therme" 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 #448,045 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