Which to use
“belieben” and “besiegen” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #15,042
- “belieben” frequency rank
- #10,434
- “besiegen” frequency rank
- 25476
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | belieben | besiegen |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Lust haben, etwas zu tun | den Sieg über jemanden erringen |
Where the eye mixes belieben and besiegen
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. belieben and besiegen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between belieben and besiegen
A purely visual mix-up. belieben ([bəˈliːbn̩]) and besiegen ([bəˈziːɡn̩]) 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 25476, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
belieben is recorded at frequency rank #15,042, classified as averb, pronounced [bəˈliːbn̩]. besiegen is at rank #10,434, tagged as averb, pronounced [bəˈziːɡn̩].
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 25476, this pair ranks #1,832,697 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of belieben vs besiegen
Shared letters: bein. Private to "belieben": l. Private to "besiegen": gs.
"belieben" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC · "besiegen" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "belieben" and "besiegen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "belieben" or "besiegen" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "belieben" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "besiegen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,832,697 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "belieben" and "besiegen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "beilegen vs besiegen". 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 #1,832,697 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.