fadevsFederWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: fade is a adjective, Feder is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fade” is an adjective and “Feder” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#37,506
“fade” frequency rank
#8,362
“Feder” frequency rank
45868
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fade Feder
Definition ohne oder mit nur wenig Geschmack 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 fade and Feder

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

4 ch
fade
5 ch
Feder

Why the eye confuses fade with Feder

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fade is [ˈfaːdə] while Feder is [ˈfeːdɐ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45868, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fade is recorded at frequency rank #37,506, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈfaːdə]. 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 45868, this pair ranks #1,338,444 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fade vs Feder

Shared letters: def. Private to "fade": a. Private to "Feder": r.

"fade" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Feder" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fadeafde · fadde · faed · fdae · ffade
  • Federefder · fdeer · fedder · federr · fedre · feedr · ffeder

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fade" for "Feder" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fade" is an adjective and "Feder" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "fade" 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 #37,506 for "fade". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "fade" 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 #1,338,444 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fade" and "Feder" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fade vs flame". 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 #1,338,444 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