blödevsboneConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#5,919
“blöde” frequency rank
#30,966
“bone” frequency rank
36885
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature blöde bone
Definition auf sehr niedrigem geistigen Niveau Knochen

Where the eye mixes blöde and bone

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

5 ch
blöde
4 ch
bone

Look-alike desk: blöde vs bone

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: blöde is [ˈbløːdə] while bone is [bəʊn]. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36885, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

blöde is recorded at frequency rank #5,919, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈbløːdə]. bone is at rank #30,966, tagged as anoun, pronounced [bəʊn].

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 36885, this pair ranks #1,604,256 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of blöde vs bone

Shared letters: be. Private to "blöde": dlö. Private to "bone": no.

"blöde" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "bone" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bonebbone · bnoe

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "blöde" and "bone" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "blöde" is an adjective and "bone" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "blöde" or "bone" show up more?
"blöde" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,919 in our German list, against #30,966 for "bone". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "blöde" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bone" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,604,256 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "blöde" and "bone" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bone vs Borneo". 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 #1,604,256 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