festervsFilterWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: fester is a adjective, Filter is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fester” is an adjective and “Filter” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,534
“fester” frequency rank
#5,945
“Filter” frequency rank
12479
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fester Filter
Definition Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs fest Material zur Trennung oder Aussonderung bestimmter Substanzen

Where the eye mixes fester and Filter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
fester
6 ch
Filter

Look-alike desk: fester vs Filter

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fester is [ˈfɛstɐ] while Filter is [ˈfɪltɐ]. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12479, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fester is recorded at frequency rank #6,534, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈfɛstɐ]. Filter is at rank #5,945, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈfɪltɐ].

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 12479, this pair ranks #1,963,947 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of fester vs Filter

Shared letters: efrt. Private to "fester": s. Private to "Filter": il.

"fester" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Filter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • festerefster · fesetr · fesster · festerr · festre · festter · fetser · ffester
  • Filterffilter · filetr · fillter · filterr · filtre · filtter · fitler · fliter

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fester" for "Filter" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fester" is an adjective and "Filter" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "fester" vs "Filter" - which ranks higher?
"Filter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,945 in our German list, against #6,534 for "fester". 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 "fester" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Filter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,963,947 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fester" and "Filter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fessel vs fester". 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 #1,963,947 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