fearvsFeldWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#29,122
“fear” frequency rank
#1,966
“Feld” frequency rank
31088
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fear Feld
Definition (die Emotion) Furcht Acker; eine Fläche, auf der Pflanzen für eine Ernte angebaut werden

Where the eye mixes fear and Feld

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
fear
4 ch
Feld

Look-alike desk: fear vs Feld

A purely visual mix-up. fear ([fɪə]) and Feld ([fɛlt]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31088, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fear is recorded at frequency rank #29,122, classified as anoun, pronounced [fɪə]. Feld is at rank #1,966, tagged as anoun, pronounced [fɛlt].

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 31088, this pair ranks #1,735,033 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of fear vs Feld

Shared letters: ef. Private to "fear": ar. Private to "Feld": dl.

"fear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "Feld" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fearefar · faer · fearr · fera · ffear
  • Feldefld · fedl · feldd · felld · ffeld · fled

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fear" and "Feld" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([fɪə] versus [fɛlt]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "fear" vs "Feld" - which ranks higher?
"Feld" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,966 in our German list, against #29,122 for "fear". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fear" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Feld" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,735,033 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fear" and "Feld" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fear vs ferry". 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 #1,735,033 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