BohnevsboneWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#28,109
“Bohne” frequency rank
#30,966
“bone” frequency rank
59075
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Bohne bone
Definition Pflanze (oder Teil) verschiedener Schmetterlingsblütler Knochen

Where the eye mixes Bohne and bone

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Bohne runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against bone's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
Bohne
4 ch
bone

Why the eye confuses Bohne with bone

A purely visual mix-up. Bohne ([ˈboːnə]) and bone ([bəʊn]) 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 59075, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Bohne is recorded at frequency rank #28,109, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈboːnə]. 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 59075, this pair ranks #838,285 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Bohne vs bone

Shared letters: beno. Private to "Bohne": h. Private to "bone": -.

"Bohne" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "bone" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Bohne ← bbohne · bhone · bohen · bohhne · bonhe · obhne
  • bone ← bbone · bnoe

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Bohne" and "bone" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈboːnə] versus [bəʊn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Bohne" or "bone"?
"Bohne" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,109 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.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Bohne" 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 #838,285 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Bohne" 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 #838,285 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