BreivsBreiteWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#15,320
“Brei” frequency rank
#1,915
“Breite” frequency rank
17235
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Brei Breite
Definition dickflüssige gekochte Speise horizontale Ausdehnung, Dimension, als Gegenstück zur Länge, Höhe oder Tiefe eine messbare Strecke an zweidimensionalen oder dreidimensionalen, rechtwinkligen Objekten, an Flächen und Körpern

Where the eye mixes Brei and Breite

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Brei
6 ch
Breite

Visual trap between Brei and Breite

A purely visual mix-up. Brei ([bʁaɪ̯]) and Breite ([ˈbʁaɪ̯tə]) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “Brei” sits inside “Breite”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17235, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Brei is recorded at frequency rank #15,320, classified as anoun, pronounced [bʁaɪ̯]. Breite is at rank #1,915, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈbʁaɪ̯tə].

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 17235, this pair ranks #1,929,180 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Brei vs Breite

Shared letters: beir. Private to "Brei": -. Private to "Breite": t.

"Brei" · 4 letters · shape CCVV  ·  "Breite" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Breibbrei · beri · brie · brrei · rbei
  • Breitebbreite · berite · breiet · breitte · bretie · briete · brreite · rbeite

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Brei" and "Breite" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([bʁaɪ̯] versus [ˈbʁaɪ̯tə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Brei" or "Breite"?
"Breite" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,915 in our German list, against #15,320 for "Brei". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Brei" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Breite" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,929,180 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Brei" and "Breite" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Brei vs Brenz". 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 #1,929,180 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