breitvsBrustTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#2,332
“breit” frequency rank
#3,234
“Brust” frequency rank
5566
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature breit Brust
Definition horizontal seitlich ausgedehnt (in Links-Rechts-Richtung) vorderer Oberkörper bei Wirbeltieren

Where the eye mixes breit and Brust

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
breit
5 ch
Brust

Look-alike desk: breit vs Brust

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: breit is [bʁaɪ̯t] while Brust is [bʁʊst]. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5566, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

breit is recorded at frequency rank #2,332, classified as anadj, pronounced [bʁaɪ̯t]. Brust is at rank #3,234, tagged as anoun, pronounced [bʁʊst].

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 5566, this pair ranks #1,994,383 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of breit vs Brust

Shared letters: brt. Private to "breit": ei. Private to "Brust": su.

"breit" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC  ·  "Brust" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • breitbbreit · berit · breitt · breti · briet · brreit · rbeit
  • Brustbbrust · brrust · brsut · brusst · brustt · bruts · burst · rbust

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "breit" for "Brust" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "breit" is an adjective and "Brust" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "breit" or "Brust"?
"breit" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,332 in our German list, against #3,234 for "Brust". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "breit" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Brust" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,994,383 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "breit" and "Brust" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "breit 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 #1,994,383 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