feyvsfredTell them apart

Which to use

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

#43,868
“fey” frequency rank
#7,047
“fred” frequency rank
50915
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fey fred
Definition (aus dem schottischen) todgeweiht kalt (von der Temperatur her)

Letter map: fey vs fred

Shared letters muted; letters that set fey and fred apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
fey
4 ch
fred

Corpus notes: fey and fred

fey and fred are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50915, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fey is recorded at frequency rank #43,868, classified as anadj, pronounced […]. fred is at rank #7,047, tagged as anadj, pronounced [fɾɛt].

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 50915, this pair ranks #1,155,501 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fey vs fred

Shared letters: ef. Private to "fey": y. Private to "fred": dr.

"fey" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "fred" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fredferd · ffred · frde · fredd · frred · rfed

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "fey" and "fred" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "fey" vs "fred" - which ranks higher?
"fred" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,047 in our German list, against #43,868 for "fey". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "fey" vs "fred" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fey" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fred" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,155,501 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fey" and "fred" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fey vs puzzles". 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 #1,155,501 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