ScanvsStarTell them apart

Which to use

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

#20,044
“Scan” frequency rank
#1,571
“Star” frequency rank
21615
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Scan Star
Definition Kopie beziehungsweise das Abbild einer Vorlage, die mit Hilfe eines Scanners erstellt wurde ein Singvogel der gleichnamigen Familie

Where the eye mixes Scan and Star

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Scan
4 ch
Star

Visual trap between Scan and Star

A purely visual mix-up. Scan ([skɛn]) and Star ([ʃtaːɐ̯]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21615, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Scan is recorded at frequency rank #20,044, classified as anoun, pronounced [skɛn]. Star is at rank #1,571, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ʃtaːɐ̯].

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 21615, this pair ranks #1,884,175 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Scan vs Star

Shared letters: as. Private to "Scan": cn. Private to "Star": rt.

"Scan" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "Star" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Scancsan · sacn · scann · sccan · scna · sscan
  • Starsatr · sstar · stra · sttar · tsar

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Scan" and "Star" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([skɛn] versus [ʃtaːɐ̯]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "Scan" or "Star" show up more?
"Star" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,571 in our German list, against #20,044 for "Scan". 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 "Scan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Star" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,884,175 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Scan" and "Star" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sai vs Scan". 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 #1,884,175 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