GefiedervsgemiedenTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#43,200
“Gefieder” frequency rank
#29,597
“gemieden” frequency rank
72797
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Gefieder gemieden
Definition Gesamtheit der Federn, welche die Haut eines Vogels bedecken Partizip Perfekt des Verbs meiden

Where the eye mixes Gefieder and gemieden

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. Gefieder and gemieden follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
Gefieder
8 ch
gemieden

Look-alike desk: Gefieder vs gemieden

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Gefieder is [ɡəˈfiːdɐ] while gemieden is [ɡəˈmiːdn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72797, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Gefieder is recorded at frequency rank #43,200, classified as anoun, pronounced [ɡəˈfiːdɐ]. gemieden is at rank #29,597, tagged as averb, pronounced [ɡəˈmiːdn̩].

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 72797, this pair ranks #378,298 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Gefieder vs gemieden

Shared letters: degi. Private to "Gefieder": fr. Private to "gemieden": mn.

"Gefieder" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC  ·  "gemieden" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Gefiederegfieder · gefeider · geffieder · gefideer · gefiedder · gefiederr · gefiedre · gefieedr
  • gemiedenegmieden · geimeden · gemeiden · gemideen · gemiedden · gemiedenn · gemiedne · gemieedn

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Gefieder" and "gemieden" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Gefieder" is a noun and "gemieden" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Gefieder" or "gemieden" show up more?
"gemieden" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,597 in our German list, against #43,200 for "Gefieder". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Gefieder" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gemieden" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #378,298 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Gefieder" and "gemieden" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Gefieder vs Gefilden". 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 #378,298 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