barevsbladeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#31,448
“bare” frequency rank
#21,552
“blade” frequency rank
53000
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bare blade
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs bar Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs blad

Where the eye mixes bare and blade

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. bare runs 4 letters (CVCV) against blade's 5 (CCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
bare
5 ch
blade

Why the eye confuses bare with blade

A purely visual mix-up. bare ([ˈbaːʁə]) and blade ([ˈblaːdə]) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53000, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bare is recorded at frequency rank #31,448, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈbaːʁə]. blade is at rank #21,552, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈblaːdə].

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 53000, this pair ranks #1,075,004 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of bare vs blade

Shared letters: abe. Private to "bare": r. Private to "blade": dl.

"bare" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "blade" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bare ← barre · bbare · brae
  • blade ← balde · bblade · bladde · blaed · bldae · bllade · lbade

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "bare" and "blade" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈbaːʁə] versus [ˈblaːdə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "bare" or "blade"?
"blade" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,552 in our German list, against #31,448 for "bare". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "bare" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "blade" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,075,004 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bare" and "blade" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bare vs Birk". 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 #1,075,004 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