errorvstabsWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#21,958
“error” frequency rank
#31,815
“tabs” frequency rank
53773
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature error tabs
Definition Fehler, Irrtum, Schnitzer 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs tab

Letter map: error vs tabs

Shared letters muted; letters that set error and tabs apart highlighted. No shared letter run. error runs 5 letters (VCCVC) against tabs's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
error
4 ch
tabs

Part-of-speech tell for error / tabs

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: error is anoun and tabsaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53773, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

error is recorded at frequency rank #21,958, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. tabs is at rank #31,815, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

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 53773, this pair ranks #1,044,768 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of error vs tabs

Shared letters: none. Private to "error": eor. Private to "tabs": abst.

"error" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "tabs" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • erroreror · erorr · errorr · errro · reror
  • tabsatbs · tabbs · tabss · tasb · tbas · ttabs

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "error" and "tabs" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "error" is a noun and "tabs" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "error" or "tabs"?
"error" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,958 in our German list, against #31,815 for "tabs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "error" vs "tabs" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "error" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tabs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,044,768 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "error" and "tabs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs tabs". 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 #1,044,768 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