bladevsblödWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#21,552
“blade” frequency rank
#2,812
“blöd” frequency rank
24364
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature blade blöd
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs blad nicht sehr intelligent (Person) oder durch mangelndes Nachdenken entstanden

Where the eye mixes blade and blöd

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

5 ch
blade
4 ch
blöd

Look-alike desk: blade vs blöd

A purely visual mix-up. blade ([ˈblaːdə]) and blöd ([bløːt]) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24364, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

blade is recorded at frequency rank #21,552, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈblaːdə]. blöd is at rank #2,812, tagged as anadj, pronounced [bløːt].

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 24364, this pair ranks #1,848,695 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of blade vs blöd

Shared letters: bdl. Private to "blade": ae. Private to "blöd": ö.

"blade" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "blöd" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bladebalde · bblade · bladde · blaed · bldae · bllade · lbade

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "blade" and "blöd" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈblaːdə] versus [bløːt]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "blade" vs "blöd" - which ranks higher?
"blöd" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,812 in our German list, against #21,552 for "blade". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "blade" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "blöd" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,848,695 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "blade" and "blöd" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "blade vs Blazer". 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 #1,848,695 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