repairvssetWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: repair is a noun, set is a num, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“repair” is a noun and “set” is a num - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#43,442
“repair” frequency rank
#3,995
“set” frequency rank
47437
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature repair set
Definition Reparatur, Ausbesserung Kardinalzahl zwischen sechs und acht

Letter map: repair vs set

Shared letters muted; letters that set repair and set apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

6 ch
repair
3 ch
set

Grammar separator: repair vs set

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: repair is anoun and setanum. On the page they differ by 3 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47437, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

repair is recorded at frequency rank #43,442, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. set is at rank #3,995, tagged as anum, pronounced […].

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 47437, this pair ranks #1,284,215 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of repair vs set

Shared letters: e. Private to "repair": aipr. Private to "set": st.

"repair" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "set" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • repairerpair · reapir · repairr · repari · repiar · reppair · rpeair · rrepair

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "repair" and "set" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "repair" is a noun and "set" a num, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "repair" or "set" show up more?
"set" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,995 in our German list, against #43,442 for "repair". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "repair" and "set".

  • Full dictionary entry for "repair" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "set" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,284,215 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "repair" and "set" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs repair". 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 #1,284,215 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