cancervsChanceTell them apart

Which to use

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

#25,940
“cancer” frequency rank
#745
“Chance” frequency rank
26685
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cancer Chance
Definition der Krebs eine Situation, die jemandem etwas ermöglicht, eine Möglichkeit, eine Aussicht auf etwas

Letter map: cancer vs Chance

Shared letters muted; letters that set cancer and Chance apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

6 ch
cancer
6 ch
Chance

Corpus notes: cancer and Chance

cancer and Chance are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 5 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26685, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cancer is recorded at frequency rank #25,940, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. Chance is at rank #745, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ʃɑ̃ːs].

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 26685, this pair ranks #1,814,083 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cancer vs Chance

Shared letters: acen. Private to "cancer": r. Private to "Chance": h.

"cancer" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Chance" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • canceracncer · cacner · canccer · cancerr · cancre · canecr · canncer · ccancer
  • Chancecahnce · cchance · chacne · chancce · chanec · channce · chhance · chnace

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cancer" for "Chance" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 5 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "cancer" or "Chance"?
"Chance" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #745 in our German list, against #25,940 for "cancer". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pair "cancer" vs "Chance" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cancer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Chance" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,814,083 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cancer" and "Chance" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cancer 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 #1,814,083 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