familyvstamponConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#7,759
“family” frequency rank
#45,619
“tampon” frequency rank
53378
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature family tampon
Definition Familie Medizin / Hygiene: der Tampon

Letter map: family vs tampon

Shared letters muted; letters that set family and tampon apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. family (CVCVCV) and tampon (CVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
family
6 ch
tampon

Spelling & dictionary notes on family vs tampon

family and tampon 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 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53378, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

family is recorded at frequency rank #7,759, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. tampon is at rank #45,619, 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 53378, this pair ranks #1,060,385 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of family vs tampon

Shared letters: am. Private to "family": fily. Private to "tampon": nopt.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • familyafmily · faimly · familly · familyy · famiyl · famliy · fammily · ffamily
  • tamponatmpon · tammpon · tamopn · tampno · tamponn · tamppon · tapmon · tmapon

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "family" and "tampon" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary German text, does "family" or "tampon" show up more?
"family" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,759 in our German list, against #45,619 for "tampon". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "family" and "tampon". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "family" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tampon" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,060,385 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "family" and "tampon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs tampon". 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 #1,060,385 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