Which to use
“besiegen” and “beziehen” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,434
- “besiegen” frequency rank
- #3,176
- “beziehen” frequency rank
- 13610
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | besiegen | beziehen |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | den Sieg über jemanden erringen | irgendwo einziehen |
Where the eye mixes besiegen and beziehen
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. besiegen and beziehen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses besiegen with beziehen
A purely visual mix-up. besiegen ([bəˈziːɡn̩]) and beziehen ([bəˈt͡siːən]) 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 13610, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
besiegen is recorded at frequency rank #10,434, classified as averb, pronounced [bəˈziːɡn̩]. beziehen is at rank #3,176, tagged as averb, pronounced [bəˈt͡siːən].
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 13610, this pair ranks #1,956,864 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of besiegen vs beziehen
Shared letters: bein. Private to "besiegen": gs. Private to "beziehen": hz.
"besiegen" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC · "beziehen" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "besiegen" for "beziehen" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "besiegen" or "beziehen" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "besiegen" and "beziehen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "besiegen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "beziehen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,956,864 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "besiegen" and "beziehen" 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 #1,956,864 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.