bebautvsbetäubtWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: bebaut is a verb, betäubt is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“bebaut” is a verb and “betäubt” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#27,210
“bebaut” frequency rank
#25,922
“betäubt” frequency rank
53132
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bebaut betäubt
Definition Partizip Perfekt des Verbs bebauen (mittels eines Betäubungsmittels oder Ähnliches) gegen Schmerzen unempfindlich gemacht oder in einen künstlichen Schlaf versetzt

Where the eye mixes bebaut and betäubt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. bebaut runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against betäubt's 7 (CVCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
bebaut
7 ch
betäubt

Why the eye confuses bebaut with betäubt

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: bebaut is [bəˈbaʊ̯t] while betäubt is [bəˈtɔɪ̯pt]. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53132, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bebaut is recorded at frequency rank #27,210, classified as averb, pronounced [bəˈbaʊ̯t]. betäubt is at rank #25,922, tagged as anadj, pronounced [bəˈtɔɪ̯pt].

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 53132, this pair ranks #1,069,986 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of bebaut vs betäubt

Shared letters: betu. Private to "bebaut": a. Private to "betäubt": ä.

"bebaut" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "betäubt" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bebautbbeaut · bbebaut · beabut · bebatu · bebautt · bebbaut · bebuat · ebbaut

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "bebaut" for "betäubt" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bebaut" is a verb and "betäubt" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "bebaut" or "betäubt" show up more?
"betäubt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,922 in our German list, against #27,210 for "bebaut". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "bebaut" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "betäubt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,069,986 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bebaut" and "betäubt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bebaut vs bebt". 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 #1,069,986 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