BreitevsbreitemWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#1,915
“Breite” frequency rank
#38,014
“breitem” frequency rank
39929
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Breite breitem
Definition horizontale Ausdehnung, Dimension, als Gegenstück zur Länge, Höhe oder Tiefe eine messbare Strecke an zweidimensionalen oder dreidimensionalen, rechtwinkligen Objekten, an Flächen und Körpern Dativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs breit

Where the eye mixes Breite and breitem

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

6 ch
Breite
7 ch
breitem

Why the eye confuses Breite with breitem

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Breite is [ˈbʁaɪ̯tə] while breitem is [ˈbʁaɪ̯təm]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “Breite” sits inside “breitem”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39929, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Breite is recorded at frequency rank #1,915, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈbʁaɪ̯tə]. breitem is at rank #38,014, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈbʁaɪ̯təm].

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 39929, this pair ranks #1,522,878 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Breite vs breitem

Shared letters: beirt. Private to "Breite": -. Private to "breitem": m.

"Breite" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV  ·  "breitem" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Breitebbreite · berite · breiet · breitte · bretie · briete · brreite · rbeite
  • breitembbreitem · beritem · breietm · breitemm · breitme · breittem · bretiem · brietem

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Breite" and "breitem" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Breite" is a noun and "breitem" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Breite" or "breitem"?
"Breite" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,915 in our German list, against #38,014 for "breitem". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "Breite" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "breitem" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,522,878 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Breite" and "breitem" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "breitem vs breitete". 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 #1,522,878 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