sistervsSitteWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#33,816
“sister” frequency rank
#21,063
“Sitte” frequency rank
54879
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sister Sitte
Definition weibliches Geschwisterkind in der Gesellschaft durch Tradition, Brauch und/oder moralische/religiöse Gebote legitimierte soziale Norm

Where the eye mixes sister and Sitte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
sister
5 ch
Sitte

Why the eye confuses sister with Sitte

A purely visual mix-up. sister ([ˈsɪstə(r)]) and Sitte ([ˈzɪtə]) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54879, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sister is recorded at frequency rank #33,816, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈsɪstə(r)]. Sitte is at rank #21,063, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈzɪtə].

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 54879, this pair ranks #1,001,419 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sister vs Sitte

Shared letters: eist. Private to "sister": r. Private to "Sitte": -.

"sister" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Sitte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sisterisster · sisetr · sisster · sisterr · sistre · sistter · sitser · ssister
  • Sitteistte · sitet · ssitte · stite

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sister" and "Sitte" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈsɪstə(r)] versus [ˈzɪtə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "sister" vs "Sitte" - which ranks higher?
"Sitte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,063 in our German list, against #33,816 for "sister". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "sister" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Sitte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,001,419 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sister" and "Sitte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sister vs steter". 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 #1,001,419 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