fevervsFreierConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#38,100
“fever” frequency rank
#3,443
“Freier” frequency rank
41543
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fever Freier
Definition Fieber Mann, der eine Frau umwirbt, um sie zu heiraten

Where the eye mixes fever and Freier

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

5 ch
fever
6 ch
Freier

Why the eye confuses fever with Freier

A purely visual mix-up. fever ([ˈfiːvə]) and Freier ([ˈfʁaɪ̯ɐ]) 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 41543, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fever is recorded at frequency rank #38,100, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈfiːvə]. Freier is at rank #3,443, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈfʁaɪ̯ɐ].

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 41543, this pair ranks #1,476,294 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fever vs Freier

Shared letters: efr. Private to "fever": v. Private to "Freier": i.

"fever" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "Freier" · 6 letters · shape CCVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • feverefver · feevr · feverr · fevre · fevver · ffever · fveer
  • Freierferier · ffreier · freeir · freierr · freire · frieer · frreier · rfeier

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fever" for "Freier" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈfiːvə] versus [ˈfʁaɪ̯ɐ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "fever" or "Freier"?
"Freier" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,443 in our German list, against #38,100 for "fever". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "fever" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Freier" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,476,294 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fever" and "Freier" 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 #1,476,294 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