Which to use
“fear” and “fever” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #29,122
- “fear” frequency rank
- #38,100
- “fever” frequency rank
- 67222
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fear | fever |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | (die Emotion) Furcht | Fieber |
Where the eye mixes fear and fever
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. fear runs 4 letters (CVVC) against fever's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: fear vs fever
A purely visual mix-up. fear ([fɪə]) and fever ([ˈfiːvə]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67222, 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]. fever is at rank #38,100, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈfiːvə].
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 67222, this pair ranks #547,266 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fear vs fever
Shared letters: efr. Private to "fear": a. Private to "fever": v.
"fear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "fever" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fear" and "fever" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "fear" vs "fever" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "fear" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fever" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #547,266 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fear" and "fever" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fever vs fixer". 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 #547,266 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.