üblevsUnzeWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: üble is a adjective, Unze is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#16,070
“üble” frequency rank
#47,803
“Unze” frequency rank
63873
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature üble Unze
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs übel Gewichtseinheit von etwa 30 Gramm

Where the eye mixes üble and Unze

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. üble and Unze follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
üble
4 ch
Unze

Visual trap between üble and Unze

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: üble is [ˈyːblə] while Unze is [ˈʊnt͡sə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63873, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

üble is recorded at frequency rank #16,070, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈyːblə]. Unze is at rank #47,803, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈʊnt͡sə].

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 63873, this pair ranks #661,350 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of üble vs Unze

Shared letters: e. Private to "üble": blü. Private to "Unze": nuz.

"üble" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "Unze" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Unze ← nuze · unez · unnze · unzze · uzne

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "üble" and "Unze" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "üble" is an adjective and "Unze" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "üble" or "Unze"?
"üble" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,070 in our German list, against #47,803 for "Unze". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "üble" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Unze" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #661,350 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "üble" and "Unze" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Unze vs Unzen". 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 #661,350 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