sharpvsstarrWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#29,787
“sharp” frequency rank
#15,222
“starr” frequency rank
45009
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sharp starr
Definition so, dass es gut schneidet (zum Beispiel ein Messer oder eine Axt) unbewegt (bei etwas, das sich normalerweise bewegt)

Letter map: sharp vs starr

Shared letters muted; letters that set sharp and starr apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
sharp
5 ch
starr

Spelling & dictionary notes on sharp vs starr

sharp and starr are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45009, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sharp is recorded at frequency rank #29,787, classified as anadj, pronounced […]. starr is at rank #15,222, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ʃtaʁ].

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 45009, this pair ranks #1,367,465 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sharp vs starr

Shared letters: ars. Private to "sharp": hp. Private to "starr": t.

"sharp" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "starr" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sharphsarp · sahrp · shapr · sharpp · sharrp · shharp · shrap · ssharp
  • starrsatrr · sstarr · strar · sttarr · tsarr

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sharp" for "starr" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary German text, does "sharp" or "starr" show up more?
"starr" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,222 in our German list, against #29,787 for "sharp". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "sharp" and "starr".

  • Full dictionary entry for "sharp" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "starr" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,367,465 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sharp" and "starr" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs sharp". 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 #1,367,465 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