PetervsPetersConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#674
“Peter” frequency rank
#9,070
“Peters” frequency rank
9744
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Peter Peters
Definition männlicher Vorname deutscher Nachname, Familienname

Where the eye mixes Peter and Peters

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

5 ch
Peter
6 ch
Peters

Look-alike desk: Peter vs Peters

A purely visual mix-up. Peter ([ˈpeːtɐ]) and Peters ([ˈpeːtɐs]) 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 1 extra letter(s) - “Peter” sits inside “Peters”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9744, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Peter is recorded at frequency rank #674, classified as aname, pronounced [ˈpeːtɐ]. Peters is at rank #9,070, tagged as aname, pronounced [ˈpeːtɐs].

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 9744, this pair ranks #1,978,494 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Peter vs Peters

Shared letters: eprt. Private to "Peter": -. Private to "Peters": s.

"Peter" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "Peters" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Peterepter · peetr · peterr · petre · petter · ppeter · pteer
  • Petersepters · peetrs · peterrs · peterss · petesr · petres · petters · ppeters

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Peter" for "Peters" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈpeːtɐ] versus [ˈpeːtɐs]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Peter" or "Peters"?
"Peter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #674 in our German list, against #9,070 for "Peters". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Peter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Peters" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,978,494 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Peter" and "Peters" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Peters vs Pieter". 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 #1,978,494 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