bielvsBildTell them apart

Which to use

“biel” and “Bild” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#23,446
“biel” frequency rank
#349
“Bild” frequency rank
23795
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature biel Bild
Definition Weiß (künstlerische) zweidimensionale Darstellung und Wiedergabe in Form eines Gemäldes, einer Zeichnung oder Grafik

Where the eye mixes biel and Bild

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
biel
4 ch
Bild

Look-alike desk: biel vs Bild

A purely visual mix-up. biel ([bʲɛl]) and Bild ([bɪlt]) 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 23795, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

biel is recorded at frequency rank #23,446, classified as anoun, pronounced [bʲɛl]. Bild is at rank #349, tagged as anoun, pronounced [bɪlt].

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 23795, this pair ranks #1,856,498 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of biel vs Bild

Shared letters: bil. Private to "biel": e. Private to "Bild": d.

"biel" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "Bild" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bielbeil · biell · bile · ibel
  • Bildbbild · bidl · bildd · billd · blid · ibld

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "biel" for "Bild" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([bʲɛl] versus [bɪlt]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "biel" or "Bild" show up more?
"Bild" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #349 in our German list, against #23,446 for "biel". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "biel" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Bild" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,856,498 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "biel" and "Bild" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "biel vs Bims". 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 #1,856,498 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