schervssichereTell them apart

Which to use

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

#36,007
“scher” frequency rank
#4,304
“sichere” frequency rank
40311
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature scher sichere
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs scheren 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs sichern

Where the eye mixes scher and sichere

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

5 ch
scher
7 ch
sichere

Visual trap between scher and sichere

A purely visual mix-up. scher ([ʃeːɐ̯]) and sichere ([ˈzɪçəʁə]) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40311, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

scher is recorded at frequency rank #36,007, classified as averb, pronounced [ʃeːɐ̯]. sichere is at rank #4,304, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈzɪçəʁə].

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 40311, this pair ranks #1,512,113 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of scher vs sichere

Shared letters: cehrs. Private to "scher": -. Private to "sichere": i.

"scher" · 5 letters · shape CCCVC  ·  "sichere" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • schercsher · sccher · scehr · scherr · schher · schre · shcer · sscher
  • sichereischere · scihere · sicchere · sicehre · sicheer · sicherre · sichhere · sichree

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "scher" for "sichere" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ʃeːɐ̯] versus [ˈzɪçəʁə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "scher" or "sichere" show up more?
"sichere" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,304 in our German list, against #36,007 for "scher". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "scher" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sichere" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,512,113 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "scher" and "sichere" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sacher vs scher". 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 #1,512,113 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