ZeigervszeigtWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#22,974
“Zeiger” frequency rank
#399
“zeigt” frequency rank
23373
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Zeiger zeigt
Definition Teil eines Messgeräts oder einer Uhr, der den gemessenen Wert oder eine Richtung anzeigt (siehe auch Kompass, Navi oder Sextant) 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs zeigen

Where the eye mixes Zeiger and zeigt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Zeiger runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against zeigt's 5 (CVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
Zeiger
5 ch
zeigt

Look-alike desk: Zeiger vs zeigt

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Zeiger is [ˈt͡saɪ̯ɡɐ] while zeigt is [t͡saɪ̯kt]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23373, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Zeiger is recorded at frequency rank #22,974, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈt͡saɪ̯ɡɐ]. zeigt is at rank #399, tagged as averb, pronounced [t͡saɪ̯kt].

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 23373, this pair ranks #1,862,136 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Zeiger vs zeigt

Shared letters: egiz. Private to "Zeiger": r. Private to "zeigt": t.

"Zeiger" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "zeigt" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Zeiger ← eziger · zegier · zeiegr · zeigerr · zeigger · zeigre · zieger · zzeiger
  • zeigt ← ezigt · zegit · zeiggt · zeigtt · zeitg · ziegt · zzeigt

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Zeiger" and "zeigt" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Zeiger" is a noun and "zeigt" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Zeiger" or "zeigt" show up more?
"zeigt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #399 in our German list, against #22,974 for "Zeiger". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Zeiger" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "zeigt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,862,136 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Zeiger" and "zeigt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Zeiger vs zier". 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 #1,862,136 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