bear
[ˈbɛə(ɹ)]
The verdict
“bear” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #21,180) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #21,180
- frequency rank, German
- 5,818
- “B” headwords
- 4
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Bär (Tierart)
Corpus desk
Index DE-bear · bear · German
bear · rank #21,180 · 4 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #21,180
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-LOW 4 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,818
- PHOTO-FINISH bea
Nearest frequency peer: bea (-1 rank slots)
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “bear”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- Bauherren
Bauherren
78,824 corpus weight
- Bausteine
Bausteine
78,823 corpus weight
- bea
bea
78,822 corpus weight
- bear
bear
78,821 corpus weight
- bedanke
bedanke
78,820 corpus weight
- bedecken
bedecken
78,819 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “bear” sits against the nearest ranked German headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | bear |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | [ˈbɛə(ɹ)] |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #21,180 |
| Misspellings tracked | 4 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “bear” sits in German frequency
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for bear is neighbouring look-alikes ("Br", "bei", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced [ˈbɛə(ɹ)]. Frequency #21,180 among 5,818 “B” headwords. 2 recorded senses keep meaning in play.
Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for bear, with forms such as "bbear", "bearr", and "bera". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Br", "bei", "ber", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct German form is bear, spelled B-E-A-R.
Definition
- 1Bär (Tierart)
- 2Baissier
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how bear appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Bears have large bodies with powerful limbs.
Bears expect prices to fall.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- bbear
- bearr
- bera
- ebar
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of bear - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 German corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 3, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "bear"?
What does "bear" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "bear"?
How do you pronounce "bear"?
What language does "bear" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar German words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "bear", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked German headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
What to do next
You've looked up "bear". Here's where to go from here.
- "bear" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "Br". View pair
- 4 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #21,180 among German headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more German words in the "B" letter cohort. B–Z browse
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.