uraltvsuraltenWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#26,208
“uralt” frequency rank
#21,813
“uralten” frequency rank
48021
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature uralt uralten
Definition sehr alt Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs uralt

Where the eye mixes uralt and uralten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
uralt
7 ch
uralten

Look-alike desk: uralt vs uralten

A purely visual mix-up. uralt ([ˈuːɐ̯ˌʔalt]) and uralten ([ˈuːɐ̯ʔaltn̩]) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “uralt” sits inside “uralten”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48021, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

uralt is recorded at frequency rank #26,208, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈuːɐ̯ˌʔalt]. uralten is at rank #21,813, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈuːɐ̯ʔaltn̩].

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 48021, this pair ranks #1,263,697 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of uralt vs uralten

Shared letters: alrtu. Private to "uralt": -. Private to "uralten": en.

"uralt" · 5 letters · shape VCVCC  ·  "uralten" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • uraltrualt · uarlt · urallt · uraltt · uratl · urlat · urralt
  • uraltenrualten · uarlten · uraletn · urallten · uraltenn · uraltne · uraltten · uratlen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "uralt" for "uralten" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈuːɐ̯ˌʔalt] versus [ˈuːɐ̯ʔaltn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "uralt" or "uralten"?
"uralten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,813 in our German list, against #26,208 for "uralt". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "uralt" and "uralten" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "uralt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "uralten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,263,697 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "uralt" and "uralten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Ural vs uralt". 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 #1,263,697 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