rightsvssignalsConfusable pair

Quick tell: rights is a noun, signals is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“rights” is a noun and “signals” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#17,113
“rights” frequency rank
#42,817
“signals” frequency rank
59930
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rights signals
Definition Plural des Substantivs right 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs signal

Letter map: rights vs signals

Shared letters muted; letters that set rights and signals apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. rights runs 6 letters (CVCCCC) against signals's 7 (CVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
rights
7 ch
signals

Role in the sentence - rights and signals

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: rights is anoun and signalsaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59930, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rights is recorded at frequency rank #17,113, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. signals is at rank #42,817, tagged as averb, 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 59930, this pair ranks #806,048 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of rights vs signals

Shared letters: gis. Private to "rights": hrt. Private to "signals": aln.

"rights" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCC  ·  "signals" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rightsirghts · rgihts · rigghts · righhts · righst · rightss · rightts · rigths
  • signalsisgnals · sginals · siganls · siggnals · signalls · signalss · signasl · signlas

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "rights" for "signals" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "rights" is a noun and "signals" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "rights" or "signals" show up more?
"rights" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,113 in our German list, against #42,817 for "signals". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "rights" and "signals". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "rights" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "signals" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #806,048 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rights" and "signals" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs signals". 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 #806,048 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