BildvsbirdWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#349
“Bild” frequency rank
#18,499
“bird” frequency rank
18848
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Where the eye mixes Bild and bird

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

4 ch
Bild
4 ch
bird

Visual trap between Bild and bird

A purely visual mix-up. Bild ([bɪlt]) and bird ([bɜːd]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - l in “Bild” becomes r in “bird”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18848, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Bild is recorded at frequency rank #349, classified as anoun, pronounced [bɪlt]. bird is at rank #18,499, tagged as anoun, pronounced [bɜːd].

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 18848, this pair ranks #1,914,314 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Bild vs bird

Shared letters: bdi. Private to "Bild": l. Private to "bird": r.

"Bild" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "bird" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Bildbbild · bidl · bildd · billd · blid · ibld
  • birdbbird · bidr · birdd · birrd · brid · ibrd

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Bild" for "bird" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([bɪlt] versus [bɜːd]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Bild" vs "bird" - which ranks higher?
"Bild" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #349 in our German list, against #18,499 for "bird". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Bild" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bird" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,914,314 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Bild" and "bird" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Bims vs bird". 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 #1,914,314 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