bleuvsBlutWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: bleu is a adjective, Blut is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“bleu” is an adjective and “Blut” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#47,273
“bleu” frequency rank
#1,586
“Blut” frequency rank
48859
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bleu Blut
Definition eine blass- bis mittelblaue Farbe habend, die ins Grünliche oder Gräuliche geht dem Stoffwechsel dienende, im Körper zirkulierende rote Flüssigkeit

Where the eye mixes bleu and Blut

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

4 ch
bleu
4 ch
Blut

Why the eye confuses bleu with Blut

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: bleu is [bløː] while Blut is [bluːt]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48859, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bleu is recorded at frequency rank #47,273, classified as anadj, pronounced [bløː]. Blut is at rank #1,586, tagged as anoun, pronounced [bluːt].

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 48859, this pair ranks #1,232,946 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of bleu vs Blut

Shared letters: blu. Private to "bleu": e. Private to "Blut": t.

"bleu" · 4 letters · shape CCVV  ·  "Blut" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bleubbleu · belu · blleu · lbeu
  • Blutbblut · bllut · bltu · blutt · bult · lbut

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "bleu" for "Blut" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bleu" is an adjective and "Blut" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "bleu" or "Blut" show up more?
"Blut" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,586 in our German list, against #47,273 for "bleu". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "bleu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Blut" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,232,946 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bleu" and "Blut" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bleu vs Böen". 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 #1,232,946 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