FabervsFederWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#18,880
“Faber” frequency rank
#8,362
“Feder” frequency rank
27242
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Faber Feder
Definition Bearbeiter von Metallen, Schmied aus der Haut von Vögeln wachsendes, aus Keratin bestehendes Gebilde mit einer Art hornigem Stiel (dem sogenannten »Kiel«), von dem aus sich feine rippen- oder fadenartige Verästelungen (die sogenannte »Fahne«) abzweigen, und die Gesamtheit dieser Gebilde das Gefieder bildet

Where the eye mixes Faber and Feder

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

5 ch
Faber
5 ch
Feder

Visual trap between Faber and Feder

A purely visual mix-up. Faber ([ˈfaːbɐ]) and Feder ([ˈfeːdɐ]) 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 27242, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Faber is recorded at frequency rank #18,880, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈfaːbɐ]. Feder is at rank #8,362, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈfeːdɐ].

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 27242, this pair ranks #1,804,947 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Faber vs Feder

Shared letters: efr. Private to "Faber": ab. Private to "Feder": d.

"Faber" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "Feder" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Faberafber · fabber · faberr · faebr · fbaer · ffaber
  • Federefder · fdeer · fedder · federr · fedre · feedr · ffeder

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Faber" and "Feder" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈfaːbɐ] versus [ˈfeːdɐ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "Faber" or "Feder" show up more?
"Feder" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,362 in our German list, against #18,880 for "Faber". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Faber" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Feder" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,804,947 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Faber" and "Feder" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Faber vs Färber". 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 #1,804,947 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