dangervsDauerConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#41,735
“danger” frequency rank
#2,238
“Dauer” frequency rank
43973
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature danger Dauer
Definition Gefahr, Bedrohung zeitliche Erstreckung von etwas

Where the eye mixes danger and Dauer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
danger
5 ch
Dauer

Why the eye confuses danger with Dauer

A purely visual mix-up. danger ([ˈdeɪndʒə]) and Dauer ([ˈdaʊ̯ɐ]) 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 43973, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

danger is recorded at frequency rank #41,735, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈdeɪndʒə]. Dauer is at rank #2,238, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈdaʊ̯ɐ].

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 43973, this pair ranks #1,401,135 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of danger vs Dauer

Shared letters: ader. Private to "danger": gn. Private to "Dauer": u.

"danger" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Dauer" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dangeradnger · dagner · danegr · dangerr · dangger · dangre · dannger · ddanger
  • Daueraduer · daeur · dauerr · daure · ddauer · duaer

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "danger" and "Dauer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈdeɪndʒə] versus [ˈdaʊ̯ɐ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "danger" or "Dauer"?
"Dauer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,238 in our German list, against #41,735 for "danger". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "danger" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Dauer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,401,135 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "danger" and "Dauer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Däne vs danger". 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 #1,401,135 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