FedernvsFelderTell them apart

Which to use

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

#8,860
“Federn” frequency rank
#5,942
“Felder” frequency rank
14802
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Federn Felder
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Feder Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Feld

Where the eye mixes Federn and Felder

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
Federn
6 ch
Felder

Visual trap between Federn and Felder

A purely visual mix-up. Federn ([ˈfeːdɐn]) and Felder ([ˈfɛldɐ]) 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 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14802, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Federn is recorded at frequency rank #8,860, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈfeːdɐn]. Felder is at rank #5,942, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈfɛldɐ].

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 14802, this pair ranks #1,948,636 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Federn vs Felder

Shared letters: defr. Private to "Federn": n. Private to "Felder": l.

"Federn" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "Felder" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Federnefdern · fdeern · feddern · fedenr · federnn · federrn · fedren · feedrn
  • Feldereflder · fedler · feldder · felderr · feldre · feledr · fellder · ffelder

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Federn" for "Felder" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈfeːdɐn] versus [ˈfɛldɐ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "Federn" or "Felder" show up more?
"Felder" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,942 in our German list, against #8,860 for "Federn". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Federn" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Felder" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,948,636 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Federn" and "Felder" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Federn vs Flyern". 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 #1,948,636 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