fightvsfliehtWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#16,420
“fight” frequency rank
#15,623
“flieht” frequency rank
32043
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fight flieht
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs fighten 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs fliehen

Where the eye mixes fight and flieht

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. fight runs 5 letters (CVCCC) against flieht's 6 (CCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
fight
6 ch
flieht

Look-alike desk: fight vs flieht

A purely visual mix-up. fight ([faɪ̯t]) and flieht ([fliːt]) 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 32043, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fight is recorded at frequency rank #16,420, classified as averb, pronounced [faɪ̯t]. flieht is at rank #15,623, tagged as averb, pronounced [fliːt].

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 32043, this pair ranks #1,715,866 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of fight vs flieht

Shared letters: fhit. Private to "fight": g. Private to "flieht": el.

"fight" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "flieht" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fight ← ffight · fgiht · figght · fighht · fightt · figth · fihgt · ifght
  • flieht ← fflieht · fileht · fleiht · fliehht · fliehtt · flieth · flihet · fllieht

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fight" for "flieht" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([faɪ̯t] versus [fliːt]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "fight" vs "flieht" - which ranks higher?
"flieht" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,623 in our German list, against #16,420 for "fight". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "fight" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "flieht" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,715,866 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fight" and "flieht" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fight vs fist". 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 #1,715,866 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