spiritvsstirbtWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: spirit is a noun, stirbt is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“spirit” is a noun and “stirbt” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#15,483
“spirit” frequency rank
#3,078
“stirbt” frequency rank
18561
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature spirit stirbt
Definition der Geist 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs sterben

Letter map: spirit vs stirbt

Shared letters muted; letters that set spirit and stirbt apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. spirit (CCVCVC) and stirbt (CCVCCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
spirit
6 ch
stirbt

Role in the sentence - spirit and stirbt

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: spirit is anoun and stirbtaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18561, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

spirit is recorded at frequency rank #15,483, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. stirbt is at rank #3,078, tagged as averb, pronounced [ʃtɪʁpt].

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 18561, this pair ranks #1,917,066 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of spirit vs stirbt

Shared letters: irst. Private to "spirit": p. Private to "stirbt": b.

"spirit" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "stirbt" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • spirit ← psirit · siprit · spiirt · spiritt · spirrit · spirti · sppirit · spriit
  • stirbt ← sitrbt · sstirbt · stibrt · stirbbt · stirbtt · stirrbt · stirtb · stribt

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "spirit" and "stirbt" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "spirit" is a noun and "stirbt" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "spirit" or "stirbt"?
"stirbt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,078 in our German list, against #15,483 for "spirit". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "spirit" vs "stirbt" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "spirit" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "stirbt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,917,066 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "spirit" and "stirbt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs spirit". 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 #1,917,066 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