UnterrichtvsuntersuchtWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#2,270
“Unterricht” frequency rank
#3,000
“untersucht” frequency rank
5270
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Unterricht untersucht
Definition regelmäßige und planvolle Weitergabe von Wissen, Information und Fähigkeiten von einem oder mehreren Lehrern an einen oder mehr Schüler analysiert oder erforscht worden; unter die Lupe genommen

Where the eye mixes Unterricht and untersucht

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. Unterricht and untersucht follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCCVCCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

10 ch
Unterricht
10 ch
untersucht

Visual trap between Unterricht and untersucht

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Unterricht is [ˈʊntɐˌʁɪçt] while untersucht is [ʊntɐˈzuːxt]. 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 5270, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Unterricht is recorded at frequency rank #2,270, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈʊntɐˌʁɪçt]. untersucht is at rank #3,000, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ʊntɐˈzuːxt].

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 5270, this pair ranks #1,995,296 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Unterricht vs untersucht

Shared letters: cehnrtu. Private to "Unterricht": i. Private to "untersucht": s.

"Unterricht" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVCCC  ·  "untersucht" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Unterricht ← nuterricht · unetrricht · unnterricht · untericht · unterircht · unterrciht · unterriccht · unterrichht
  • untersucht ← nutersucht · unetrsucht · unntersucht · unterrsucht · unterscuht · unterssucht · untersuccht · untersuchht

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Unterricht" and "untersucht" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Unterricht" is a noun and "untersucht" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Unterricht" or "untersucht"?
"Unterricht" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,270 in our German list, against #3,000 for "untersucht". 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 "Unterricht" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "untersucht" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,995,296 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Unterricht" and "untersucht" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Unterricht vs unterrichte". 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 #1,995,296 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