sichervssichereWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: sicher is a adjective, sichere is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#270
“sicher” frequency rank
#4,304
“sichere” frequency rank
4574
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sicher sichere
Definition vor Gefahren geschützt 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs sichern

Where the eye mixes sicher and sichere

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

6 ch
sicher
7 ch
sichere

Visual trap between sicher and sichere

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sicher is [ˈzɪçɐ] while sichere is [ˈzɪçəʁə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “sicher” sits inside “sichere”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4574, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sicher is recorded at frequency rank #270, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈzɪçɐ]. 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 4574, this pair ranks #1,997,336 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sicher vs sichere

Shared letters: cehirs. Private to "sicher": -. Private to "sichere": -.

"sicher" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "sichere" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sicherischer · sciher · siccher · sicehr · sicherr · sichher · sichre · sihcer
  • sichereischere · scihere · sicchere · sicehre · sicheer · sicherre · sichhere · sichree

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sicher" and "sichere" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sicher" is an adjective and "sichere" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "sicher" vs "sichere" - which ranks higher?
"sicher" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #270 in our German list, against #4,304 for "sichere". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "sicher" 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 #1,997,336 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sicher" and "sichere" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sacher vs sichere". 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 #1,997,336 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