bestichtvsbesuchtWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#35,104
“besticht” frequency rank
#2,489
“besucht” frequency rank
37593
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature besticht besucht
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs bestechen viele oder wenige Besucher habend

Where the eye mixes besticht and besucht

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. besticht runs 8 letters (CVCCVCCC) against besucht's 7 (CVCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
besticht
7 ch
besucht

Why the eye confuses besticht with besucht

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: besticht is [bəˈʃtɪçt] while besucht is [bəˈzuːxt]. 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 37593, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

besticht is recorded at frequency rank #35,104, classified as averb, pronounced [bəˈʃtɪçt]. besucht is at rank #2,489, tagged as anadj, pronounced [bəˈzuːxt].

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 37593, this pair ranks #1,586,118 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of besticht vs besucht

Shared letters: bcehst. Private to "besticht": i. Private to "besucht": u.

"besticht" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCC  ·  "besucht" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bestichtbbesticht · besitcht · bessticht · bestciht · besticcht · bestichht · bestichtt · besticth
  • besuchtbbesucht · bescuht · bessucht · besuccht · besuchht · besuchtt · besucth · besuhct

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "besticht" for "besucht" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "besticht" is a verb and "besucht" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "besticht" vs "besucht" - which ranks higher?
"besucht" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,489 in our German list, against #35,104 for "besticht". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "besticht" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "besucht" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,586,118 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "besticht" and "besucht" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bespricht vs besticht". 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 #1,586,118 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