Which to use
“breiten” is a verb and “breiter” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,429
- “breiten” frequency rank
- #6,519
- “breiter” frequency rank
- 9948
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | breiten | breiter |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | etwas Zusammengelegtes, das wenig Platz einnimmt, auseinandernehmen und mehr Platz einnehmen lassen | Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs breit |
Where the eye mixes breiten and breiter
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. breiten and breiter follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses breiten with breiter
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: breiten is [ˈbʁaɪ̯tn̩] while breiter is [ˈbʁaɪ̯tɐ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - n in “breiten” becomes r in “breiter”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9948, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
breiten is recorded at frequency rank #3,429, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈbʁaɪ̯tn̩]. breiter is at rank #6,519, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈbʁaɪ̯tɐ].
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 9948, this pair ranks #1,977,504 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of breiten vs breiter
Shared letters: beirt. Private to "breiten": n. Private to "breiter": -.
"breiten" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC · "breiter" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "breiten" and "breiter" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "breiten" or "breiter" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "breiten" and "breiter" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "breiten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "breiter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,977,504 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "breiten" and "breiter" 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 #1,977,504 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.