angervsAngstWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#27,185
“anger” frequency rank
#578
“Angst” frequency rank
27763
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature anger Angst
Definition Ärger Gefühl der (existentiellen) Furcht oder Sorge, etwa bei einer Bedrohung

Where the eye mixes anger and Angst

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
anger
5 ch
Angst

Visual trap between anger and Angst

A purely visual mix-up. anger ([ˈæŋɡə]) and Angst ([aŋst]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27763, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

anger is recorded at frequency rank #27,185, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈæŋɡə]. Angst is at rank #578, tagged as anoun, pronounced [aŋst].

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 27763, this pair ranks #1,796,301 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of anger vs Angst

Shared letters: agn. Private to "anger": er. Private to "Angst": st.

"anger" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "Angst" · 5 letters · shape VCCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • angeragner · anegr · angerr · angger · angre · annger
  • Angstagnst · anggst · angsst · angstt · angts · anngst · ansgt · nagst

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "anger" for "Angst" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈæŋɡə] versus [aŋst]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "anger" vs "Angst" - which ranks higher?
"Angst" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #578 in our German list, against #27,185 for "anger". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "anger" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Angst" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,796,301 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "anger" and "Angst" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "anger vs angle". 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 #1,796,301 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