beliebtvsbeliefConfusable pair

Quick tell: beliebt is a adjective, belief is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#3,504
“beliebt” frequency rank
#21,188
“belief” frequency rank
24692
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature beliebt belief
Definition gern gesehen, sehr geschätzt 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs belaufen

Where the eye mixes beliebt and belief

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. beliebt runs 7 letters (CVCVVCC) against belief's 6 (CVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
beliebt
6 ch
belief

Look-alike desk: beliebt vs belief

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: beliebt is [bəˈliːpt] while belief is [bəˈliːf]. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24692, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

beliebt is recorded at frequency rank #3,504, classified as anadj, pronounced [bəˈliːpt]. belief is at rank #21,188, tagged as averb, pronounced [bəˈliːf].

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 24692, this pair ranks #1,844,070 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of beliebt vs belief

Shared letters: beil. Private to "beliebt": t. Private to "belief": f.

"beliebt" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC  ·  "belief" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • beliebtbbeliebt · beilebt · beleibt · belibet · beliebbt · beliebtt · belietb · belliebt
  • beliefbbelief · beilef · beleif · belieff · belife · bellief · bleief · eblief

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "beliebt" for "belief" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "beliebt" is an adjective and "belief" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "beliebt" or "belief" show up more?
"beliebt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,504 in our German list, against #21,188 for "belief". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "beliebt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "belief" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,844,070 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "beliebt" and "belief" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "belief vs beriet". 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 #1,844,070 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