seithervssicherWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: seither is a adverb, sicher is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“seither” is an adverb and “sicher” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,647
“seither” frequency rank
#270
“sicher” frequency rank
4917
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature seither sicher
Definition von einem bestimmten Zeitpunkt an vor Gefahren geschützt

Where the eye mixes seither and sicher

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

7 ch
seither
6 ch
sicher

Visual trap between seither and sicher

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: seither is [ˌzaɪ̯tˈheːɐ̯] while sicher is [ˈzɪçɐ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4917, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

seither is recorded at frequency rank #4,647, classified as anadv, pronounced [ˌzaɪ̯tˈheːɐ̯]. sicher is at rank #270, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈzɪçɐ].

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 4917, this pair ranks #1,996,295 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of seither vs sicher

Shared letters: ehirs. Private to "seither": t. Private to "sicher": c.

"seither" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "sicher" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • seitheresither · seihter · seitehr · seitherr · seithher · seithre · seitther · setiher
  • sicherischer · sciher · siccher · sicehr · sicherr · sichher · sichre · sihcer

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "seither" and "sicher" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "seither" is an adverb and "sicher" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "seither" or "sicher" show up more?
"sicher" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #270 in our German list, against #4,647 for "seither". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "seither" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sicher" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,996,295 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "seither" and "sicher" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sacher vs sicher". 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 #1,996,295 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