StädtevsstarreWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#1,748
“Städte” frequency rank
#18,710
“starre” frequency rank
20458
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Städte starre
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Stadt 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs starren

Where the eye mixes Städte and starre

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

6 ch
Städte
6 ch
starre

Why the eye confuses Städte with starre

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Städte is [ˈʃtɛːtə] while starre is [ˈʃtaʁə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20458, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Städte is recorded at frequency rank #1,748, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈʃtɛːtə]. starre is at rank #18,710, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈʃtaʁə].

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 20458, this pair ranks #1,897,435 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Städte vs starre

Shared letters: est. Private to "Städte": . Private to "starre": ar.

"Städte" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV  ·  "starre" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • starresatrre · sstarre · stare · starer · strare · sttarre · tsarre

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Städte" and "starre" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Städte" is a noun and "starre" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Städte" vs "starre" - which ranks higher?
"Städte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,748 in our German list, against #18,710 for "starre". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Städte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "starre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,897,435 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Städte" and "starre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stärkte vs starre". 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 #1,897,435 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