bohrvsboneConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#41,715
“bohr” frequency rank
#30,966
“bone” frequency rank
72681
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bohr bone
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs bohren Knochen

Where the eye mixes bohr and bone

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. bohr (CVCC) and bone (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
bohr
4 ch
bone

Look-alike desk: bohr vs bone

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: bohr is [boːɐ̯] while bone is [bəʊn]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72681, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bohr is recorded at frequency rank #41,715, classified as averb, pronounced [boːɐ̯]. 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 72681, this pair ranks #381,451 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of bohr vs bone

Shared letters: bo. Private to "bohr": hr. Private to "bone": en.

"bohr" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "bone" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bohr ← bbohr · bhor · bohhr · bohrr · borh · obhr
  • bone ← bbone · bnoe

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "bohr" and "bone" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bohr" is a verb and "bone" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "bohr" or "bone" show up more?
"bone" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,966 in our German list, against #41,715 for "bohr". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "bohr" 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 #381,451 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bohr" and "bone" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bohr vs boos". 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 #381,451 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