sistervssteterTell them apart

Quick tell: sister is a noun, steter is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sister” is a noun and “steter” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#33,816
“sister” frequency rank
#47,025
“steter” frequency rank
80841
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sister steter
Definition weibliches Geschwisterkind Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs stet

Where the eye mixes sister and steter

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

6 ch
sister
6 ch
steter

Why the eye confuses sister with steter

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sister is [ˈsɪstə(r)] while steter is [ˈʃteːtɐ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 80841, 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)]. steter is at rank #47,025, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈʃteːtɐ].

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 80841, this pair ranks #187,395 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sister vs steter

Shared letters: erst. Private to "sister": i. Private to "steter": -.

"sister" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "steter" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sisterisster · sisetr · sisster · sisterr · sistre · sistter · sitser · ssister
  • stetersetter · ssteter · steetr · steterr · stetre · stetter · stteer · stteter

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sister" and "steter" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sister" is a noun and "steter" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "sister" vs "steter" - which ranks higher?
"sister" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,816 in our German list, against #47,025 for "steter". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sister" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "steter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #187,395 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sister" and "steter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "steter vs Stuten". 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 #187,395 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