Which to use
“fairy” and “family” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #48,134
- “fairy” frequency rank
- #7,759
- “family” frequency rank
- 55893
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fairy | family |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | die Fee | Familie |
Letter map: fairy vs family
Shared letters muted; letters that set fairy and family apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. fairy runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against family's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Pair insight - fairy / family
fairy and family 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55893, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fairy is recorded at frequency rank #48,134, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈfɛəɹɪ]. family is at rank #7,759, tagged as anoun, 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 55893, this pair ranks #961,603 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fairy vs family
Shared letters: afiy. Private to "fairy": r. Private to "family": lm.
"fairy" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "family" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fairy" for "family" ever safe?
Frequency check: "fairy" vs "family" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
You've compared "fairy" and "family". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "fairy" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "family" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #961,603 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fairy" and "family" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fairy vs firm". 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 #961,603 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.