sicherevssichernConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#4,304
“sichere” frequency rank
#2,856
“sichern” frequency rank
7160
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sichere sichern
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs sichern etwas vor Gefahren oder Zugriff bewahren, etwas sicher machen

Where the eye mixes sichere and sichern

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

7 ch
sichere
7 ch
sichern

Visual trap between sichere and sichern

A purely visual mix-up. sichere ([ˈzɪçəʁə]) and sichern ([ˈzɪçɐn]) 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 a single letter - e in “sichere” becomes n in “sichern”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7160, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sichere is recorded at frequency rank #4,304, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈzɪçəʁə]. sichern is at rank #2,856, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈzɪçɐn].

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 7160, this pair ranks #1,989,175 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sichere vs sichern

Shared letters: cehirs. Private to "sichere": -. Private to "sichern": n.

"sichere" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "sichern" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sichereischere · scihere · sicchere · sicehre · sicheer · sicherre · sichhere · sichree
  • sichernischern · scihern · sicchern · sicehrn · sichenr · sichernn · sicherrn · sichhern

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sichere" for "sichern" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈzɪçəʁə] versus [ˈzɪçɐn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "sichere" vs "sichern" - which ranks higher?
"sichern" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,856 in our German list, against #4,304 for "sichere". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "sichere" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sichern" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,989,175 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sichere" and "sichern" 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 #1,989,175 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