FaxenvsfegenWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Faxen is a noun, fegen is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Faxen” is a noun and “fegen” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#34,090
“Faxen” frequency rank
#33,040
“fegen” frequency rank
67130
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Faxen fegen
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Faxe mit einem Besen entfernen

Where the eye mixes Faxen and fegen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Faxen and fegen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
Faxen
5 ch
fegen

Why the eye confuses Faxen with fegen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Faxen is [ˈfaksn̩] while fegen is [ˈfeːɡn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67130, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Faxen is recorded at frequency rank #34,090, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈfaksn̩]. fegen is at rank #33,040, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈfeːɡn̩].

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 67130, this pair ranks #550,300 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Faxen vs fegen

Shared letters: efn. Private to "Faxen": ax. Private to "fegen": g.

"Faxen" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "fegen" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Faxen ← afxen · faexn · faxenn · faxne · faxxen · ffaxen · fxaen
  • fegen ← efgen · feegn · fegenn · feggen · fegne · ffegen · fgeen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Faxen" for "fegen" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Faxen" is a noun and "fegen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Faxen" or "fegen"?
"fegen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,040 in our German list, against #34,090 for "Faxen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Faxen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fegen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #550,300 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Faxen" and "fegen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fegen vs Felge". 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 #550,300 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