BangevsbanjoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#17,521
“Bange” frequency rank
#38,621
“banjo” frequency rank
56142
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Bange banjo
Definition Angst, Furcht, Scheu Banjo

Where the eye mixes Bange and banjo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Bange and banjo follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
Bange
5 ch
banjo

Visual trap between Bange and banjo

A purely visual mix-up. Bange ([ˈbaŋə]) and banjo ([ˈbænd͡ʒəʊ]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56142, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Bange is recorded at frequency rank #17,521, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈbaŋə]. banjo is at rank #38,621, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈbænd͡ʒəʊ].

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 56142, this pair ranks #951,833 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Bange vs banjo

Shared letters: abn. Private to "Bange": eg. Private to "banjo": jo.

"Bange" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "banjo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Bange ← abnge · bagne · baneg · bangge · bannge · bbange · bnage
  • banjo ← abnjo · bajno · banjjo · bannjo · banoj · bbanjo · bnajo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Bange" for "banjo" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈbaŋə] versus [ˈbænd͡ʒəʊ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Bange" or "banjo"?
"Bange" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,521 in our German list, against #38,621 for "banjo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Bange" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "banjo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #951,833 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Bange" and "banjo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "banco vs banjo". 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 #951,833 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