fussesvsmysteryWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: fusses is a verb, mystery is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fusses” is a verb and “mystery” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#33,054
“fusses” frequency rank
#17,368
“mystery” frequency rank
50422
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fusses mystery
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs fuss Geheimnis, Mysterium

Letter map: fusses vs mystery

Shared letters muted; letters that set fusses and mystery apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. fusses runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against mystery's 7 (CVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
fusses
7 ch
mystery

Grammar separator: fusses vs mystery

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: fusses is averb and mysteryanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50422, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fusses is recorded at frequency rank #33,054, classified as averb, pronounced […]. mystery is at rank #17,368, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

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 50422, this pair ranks #1,174,284 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fusses vs mystery

Shared letters: es. Private to "fusses": fu. Private to "mystery": mrty.

"fusses" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "mystery" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fussesffusses · fsuses · fusess · fussess · fussse · fußes · ufsses
  • mysterymmystery · msytery · mysetry · mysstery · mysterry · mysteryy · mysteyr · mystrey

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fusses" for "mystery" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fusses" is a verb and "mystery" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "fusses" or "mystery"?
"mystery" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,368 in our German list, against #33,054 for "fusses". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "fusses" vs "mystery" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fusses" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mystery" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,174,284 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fusses" and "mystery" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fusses 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 #1,174,284 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