magervsManagerWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#21,349
“mager” frequency rank
#2,350
“Manager” frequency rank
23699
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mager Manager
Definition dünn, dürr Person, (meist angestellte) Führungskraft, in einem Unternehmen

Where the eye mixes mager and Manager

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

5 ch
mager
7 ch
Manager

Why the eye confuses mager with Manager

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mager is [ˈmaːɡɐ] while Manager is [ˈmɛnɪd͡ʒɐ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23699, 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]. Manager is at rank #2,350, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmɛnɪd͡ʒɐ].

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 23699, this pair ranks #1,857,810 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mager vs Manager

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

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mageramger · maegr · magerr · magger · magre · mgaer · mmager
  • Manageramnager · maanger · manaegr · managerr · managger · managre · mangaer · mannager

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mager" and "Manager" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mager" is an adjective and "Manager" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "mager" vs "Manager" - which ranks higher?
"Manager" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,350 in our German list, against #21,349 for "mager". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mager" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Manager" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,857,810 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mager" and "Manager" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mager vs Mauser". 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 #1,857,810 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