festervsFolterWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#6,534
“fester” frequency rank
#8,364
“Folter” frequency rank
14898
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fester Folter
Definition Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs fest die Misshandlung oder das Zufügen von körperlichen und seelischen Schmerzen

Where the eye mixes fester and Folter

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

6 ch
fester
6 ch
Folter

Look-alike desk: fester vs Folter

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fester is [ˈfɛstɐ] while Folter is [ˈfɔltɐ]. 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 14898, 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]. Folter is at rank #8,364, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈfɔltɐ].

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 14898, this pair ranks #1,947,926 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of fester vs Folter

Shared letters: efrt. Private to "fester": s. Private to "Folter": lo.

"fester" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Folter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • festerefster · fesetr · fesster · festerr · festre · festter · fetser · ffester
  • Folterffolter · floter · foletr · follter · folterr · foltre · foltter · fotler

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fester" and "Folter" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fester" is an adjective and "Folter" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "fester" or "Folter" show up more?
"fester" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,534 in our German list, against #8,364 for "Folter". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "fester" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Folter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,947,926 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fester" and "Folter" 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 #1,947,926 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