altarsvsaltereTell them apart

Quick tell: altars is a noun, altere is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“altars” is a noun and “altere” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#43,697
“altars” frequency rank
#36,169
“altere” frequency rank
79866
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature altars altere
Definition Plural des Substantivs altar 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs altern

Letter map: altars vs altere

Shared letters muted; letters that set altars and altere apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

6 ch
altars
6 ch
altere

Role in the sentence - altars and altere

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: altars is anoun and altereaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79866, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

altars is recorded at frequency rank #43,697, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. altere is at rank #36,169, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈaltəʁə].

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 79866, this pair ranks #207,384 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of altars vs altere

Shared letters: alrt. Private to "altars": s. Private to "altere": e.

"altars" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC  ·  "altere" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • altarsalatrs · alltars · altarrs · altarss · altasr · altras · alttars · atlars
  • alterealetre · alltere · alteer · alterre · altree · alttere · atlere · latere

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "altars" for "altere" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "altars" is a noun and "altere" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "altars" or "altere" show up more?
"altere" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,169 in our German list, against #43,697 for "altars". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "altars" vs "altere" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "altars" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "altere" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #207,384 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "altars" and "altere" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "altars vs puzzles". 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 #207,384 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