BreitevsbreitenWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#1,915
“Breite” frequency rank
#3,429
“breiten” frequency rank
5344
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Breite breiten
Definition horizontale Ausdehnung, Dimension, als Gegenstück zur Länge, Höhe oder Tiefe eine messbare Strecke an zweidimensionalen oder dreidimensionalen, rechtwinkligen Objekten, an Flächen und Körpern etwas Zusammengelegtes, das wenig Platz einnimmt, auseinandernehmen und mehr Platz einnehmen lassen

Where the eye mixes Breite and breiten

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

6 ch
Breite
7 ch
breiten

Why the eye confuses Breite with breiten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Breite is [ˈbʁaɪ̯tə] while breiten is [ˈbʁaɪ̯tn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “Breite” sits inside “breiten”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5344, 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]. breiten is at rank #3,429, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈbʁaɪ̯tn̩].

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 5344, this pair ranks #1,995,048 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Breite vs breiten

Shared letters: beirt. Private to "Breite": -. Private to "breiten": n.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Breitebbreite · berite · breiet · breitte · bretie · briete · brreite · rbeite
  • breitenbbreiten · beriten · breietn · breitenn · breitne · breitten · bretien · brieten

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Breite" and "breiten" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Breite" is a noun and "breiten" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Breite" vs "breiten" - which ranks higher?
"Breite" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,915 in our German list, against #3,429 for "breiten". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Breite" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "breiten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,995,048 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Breite" and "breiten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "breiten vs Britin". 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 #1,995,048 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