hagervsHexerWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: hager is a adjective, Hexer is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hager” is an adjective and “Hexer” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#29,164
“hager” frequency rank
#45,347
“Hexer” frequency rank
74511
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hager Hexer
Definition dürr, mager, sehnig, knochig (und häufig groß gewachsen) männliche Hexe

Where the eye mixes hager and Hexer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. hager and Hexer follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
hager
5 ch
Hexer

Visual trap between hager and Hexer

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hager is [ˈhaːɡɐ] while Hexer is [ˈhɛksɐ]. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74511, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hager is recorded at frequency rank #29,164, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈhaːɡɐ]. Hexer is at rank #45,347, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈhɛksɐ].

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 74511, this pair ranks #331,542 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of hager vs Hexer

Shared letters: ehr. Private to "hager": ag. Private to "Hexer": x.

"hager" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "Hexer" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hager ← ahger · haegr · hagerr · hagger · hagre · hgaer · hhager
  • Hexer ← ehxer · heexr · hexerr · hexre · hexxer · hhexer · hxeer

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hager" and "Hexer" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hager" is an adjective and "Hexer" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "hager" or "Hexer" show up more?
"hager" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,164 in our German list, against #45,347 for "Hexer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hager" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Hexer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #331,542 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hager" and "Hexer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Hemer vs Hexer". 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 #331,542 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