familyvsgadgetWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#7,759
“family” frequency rank
#39,948
“gadget” frequency rank
47707
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature family gadget
Definition Familie (kleiner -e -es, innovativer -e -es) Apparat, Gerät, Vorrichtung

Letter map: family vs gadget

Shared letters muted; letters that set family and gadget apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. family (CVCVCV) and gadget (CVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
family
6 ch
gadget

Corpus notes: family and gadget

family and gadget 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 share most of their letters but differ in 5 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47707, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

family is recorded at frequency rank #7,759, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. gadget is at rank #39,948, 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 47707, this pair ranks #1,274,923 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of family vs gadget

Shared letters: a. Private to "family": filmy. Private to "gadget": degt.

"family" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "gadget" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • familyafmily · faimly · familly · familyy · famiyl · famliy · fammily · ffamily
  • gadgetagdget · gaddget · gadegt · gadgett · gadgget · gadgte · gagdet · gdaget

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "family" and "gadget" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 5 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "family" vs "gadget" - which ranks higher?
"family" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,759 in our German list, against #39,948 for "gadget". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "family" vs "gadget" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "family" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gadget" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,274,923 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "family" and "gadget" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gadget vs puzzles". 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 #1,274,923 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