FelgevsFellWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#49,666
“Felge” frequency rank
#8,708
“Fell” frequency rank
58374
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Felge Fell
Definition Bestandteil eines Rades, der den Reifen trägt die behaarte Haut eines Tieres

Where the eye mixes Felge and Fell

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Felge runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against Fell's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
Felge
4 ch
Fell

Visual trap between Felge and Fell

A purely visual mix-up. Felge ([ˈfɛlɡə]) and Fell ([fɛl]) 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 58374, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Felge is recorded at frequency rank #49,666, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈfɛlɡə]. Fell is at rank #8,708, tagged as anoun, pronounced [fɛl].

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 58374, this pair ranks #865,233 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Felge vs Fell

Shared letters: efl. Private to "Felge": g. Private to "Fell": -.

"Felge" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Fell" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Felgeeflge · fegle · feleg · felgge · fellge · ffelge · flege
  • Fellefll · fel · ffell · flel

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Felge" for "Fell" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈfɛlɡə] versus [fɛl]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Felge" vs "Fell" - which ranks higher?
"Fell" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,708 in our German list, against #49,666 for "Felge". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "Felge" and "Fell" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Felge" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Fell" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #865,233 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Felge" and "Fell" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Felge vs Fete". 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 #865,233 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