settingvsstarsWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#22,890
“setting” frequency rank
#3,921
“stars” frequency rank
26811
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature setting stars
Definition Partizip Präsens (present participle) des Verbs set Plural des Substantivs star

Letter map: setting vs stars

Shared letters muted; letters that set setting and stars apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

7 ch
setting
5 ch
stars

Grammar separator: setting vs stars

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: setting is averb and starsanoun. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26811, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

setting is recorded at frequency rank #22,890, classified as averb, pronounced […]. stars is at rank #3,921, tagged as anoun, 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 26811, this pair ranks #1,812,001 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of setting vs stars

Shared letters: st. Private to "setting": egin. Private to "stars": ar.

"setting" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "stars" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • settingestting · seting · setitng · settign · settingg · settinng · settnig · ssetting
  • starssatrs · sstars · starrs · starss · stasr · stras · sttars · tsars

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "setting" for "stars" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "setting" is a verb and "stars" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "setting" or "stars" show up more?
"stars" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,921 in our German list, against #22,890 for "setting". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "setting" vs "stars" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "setting" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "stars" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,812,001 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "setting" and "stars" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs setting". 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 #1,812,001 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