bosvsbösenTell them apart

Quick tell: bos is a noun, bösen is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#29,972
“bos” frequency rank
#3,364
“bösen” frequency rank
33336
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bos bösen
Definition Rind; Ochse, Stier Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Adjektivs böse

Letter map: bos vs bösen

Shared letters muted; letters that set bos and bösen apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
bos
5 ch
bösen

Role in the sentence - bos and bösen

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: bos is anoun and bösenanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33336, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bos is recorded at frequency rank #29,972, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. bösen is at rank #3,364, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈbøːzn̩].

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 33336, this pair ranks #1,688,150 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of bos vs bösen

Shared letters: bs. Private to "bos": o. Private to "bösen": enö.

"bos" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "bösen" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "bos" for "bösen" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bos" is a noun and "bösen" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "bos" vs "bösen" - which ranks higher?
"bösen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,364 in our German list, against #29,972 for "bos". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "bos" and "bösen". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bösen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,688,150 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bos" and "bösen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bos vs puzzles". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,688,150 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