Which to use
“fire” is a num and “fixe” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,171
- “fire” frequency rank
- #25,128
- “fixe” frequency rank
- 32299
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fire | fixe |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | vier | Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs fix |
Where the eye mixes fire and fixe
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. fire and fixe follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between fire and fixe
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fire is [ˈfiːɔ] while fixe is [ˈfɪksə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - r in “fire” becomes x in “fixe”, and the parts of speech differ too (num vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32299, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fire is recorded at frequency rank #7,171, classified as anum, pronounced [ˈfiːɔ]. fixe is at rank #25,128, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈfɪksə].
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 32299, this pair ranks #1,710,593 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of fire vs fixe
Shared letters: efi. Private to "fire": r. Private to "fixe": x.
"fire" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "fixe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "fire" and "fixe" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary German text, does "fire" or "fixe" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "fire" and "fixe" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "fire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fixe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,710,593 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fire" and "fixe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fist vs fixe". 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 #1,710,593 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.