magervsmagerenWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#21,349
“mager” frequency rank
#37,067
“mageren” frequency rank
58416
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mager mageren
Definition dünn, dürr Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs mager

Where the eye mixes mager and mageren

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
mager
7 ch
mageren

Visual trap between mager and mageren

A purely visual mix-up. mager ([ˈmaːɡɐ]) and mageren ([ˈmaːɡəʁən]) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “mager” sits inside “mageren”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58416, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mager is recorded at frequency rank #21,349, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈmaːɡɐ]. mageren is at rank #37,067, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈmaːɡəʁən].

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 58416, this pair ranks #863,583 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mager vs mageren

Shared letters: aegmr. Private to "mager": -. Private to "mageren": n.

"mager" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "mageren" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mageramger · maegr · magerr · magger · magre · mgaer · mmager
  • magerenamgeren · maegren · mageern · magerenn · magerne · magerren · maggeren · magreen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mager" and "mageren" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmaːɡɐ] versus [ˈmaːɡəʁən]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "mager" vs "mageren" - which ranks higher?
"mager" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,349 in our German list, against #37,067 for "mageren". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mager" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mageren" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #863,583 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mager" and "mageren" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mageren vs Mauren". 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 #863,583 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