übel vs Uke, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#3,225
“übel” frequency rank: #44,987
“Uke” frequency rank: 48212
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	übel	Uke
Definition	schlecht, krank, unwohl (seiend)	im Judo die Person, die geworfen wird beziehungsweise an der die Technik ausgeführt wird

Letter map: übel vs Uke

Shared letters muted; letters that set übel and Uke apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

4 ch

übel

3 ch

Uke

Role in the sentence - übel and Uke

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: übel is anadjective and Ukeanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48212, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

übel is recorded at frequency rank #3,225, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈyːbl̩]. Uke is at rank #44,987, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

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 48212, this pair ranks #1,256,783 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of übel vs Uke

Shared letters: e. Private to "übel": blü. Private to "Uke": ku.

"übel" · 4 letters · shape VCVC · "Uke" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "übel" for "Uke" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "übel" is an adjective and "Uke" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary German text, does "übel" or "Uke" show up more?

"übel" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,225 in our German list, against #44,987 for "Uke". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "übel" and "Uke".

Full dictionary entry for "übel" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "Uke" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #1,256,783 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"übel" and "Uke" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs Uke". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,256,783 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.