spacesvsspareTell them apart

Which to use

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

#38,421
“spaces” frequency rank
#17,136
“spare” frequency rank
55557
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature spaces spare
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs space 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs sparen

Letter map: spaces vs spare

Shared letters muted; letters that set spaces and spare apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

6 ch
spaces
5 ch
spare

Spelling & dictionary notes on spaces vs spare

spaces and spare 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55557, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

spaces is recorded at frequency rank #38,421, classified as averb, pronounced […]. spare is at rank #17,136, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈʃpaːʁə].

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 55557, this pair ranks #974,986 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of spaces vs spare

Shared letters: aeps. Private to "spaces": c. Private to "spare": r.

"spaces" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "spare" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • spacespsaces · sapces · spacces · spacess · spacse · spaecs · spcaes · sppaces
  • sparepsare · sapre · spaer · sparre · sppare · sprae · sspare

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "spaces" and "spare" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "spaces" vs "spare" - which ranks higher?
"spare" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,136 in our German list, against #38,421 for "spaces". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "spaces" vs "spare" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "spaces" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "spare" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #974,986 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "spaces" and "spare" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs spaces". 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 #974,986 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