magervsMargeWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#21,349
“mager” frequency rank
#23,228
“Marge” frequency rank
44577
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mager Marge
Definition dünn, dürr ein Unterschied, der auftreten darf; Spielraum, Spanne

Where the eye mixes mager and Marge

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. mager (CVCVC) and Marge (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
mager
5 ch
Marge

Why the eye confuses mager with Marge

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mager is [ˈmaːɡɐ] while Marge is [ˈmaʁʒə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they are an anagram pair: the same letters reordered, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44577, 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]. Marge is at rank #23,228, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmaʁʒə].

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 44577, this pair ranks #1,381,676 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mager vs Marge

Shared letters: aegmr. Private to "mager": -. Private to "Marge": -.

"mager" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "Marge" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mageramger · maegr · magerr · magger · magre · mgaer · mmager
  • Margeamrge · mareg · margge · marrge · mmarge · mrage

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mager" and "Marge" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mager" is an adjective and "Marge" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "mager" or "Marge" show up more?
"mager" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,349 in our German list, against #23,228 for "Marge". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "mager" and "Marge" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mager" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Marge" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,381,676 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mager" and "Marge" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Marge vs Matze". 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 #1,381,676 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