breitervsbreiterenWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#6,519
“breiter” frequency rank
#21,556
“breiteren” frequency rank
28075
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature breiter breiteren
Definition Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs breit Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Komparativs des Adjektivs breit

Where the eye mixes breiter and breiteren

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. breiter runs 7 letters (CCVVCVC) against breiteren's 9 (CCVVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
breiter
9 ch
breiteren

Why the eye confuses breiter with breiteren

A purely visual mix-up. breiter ([ˈbʁaɪ̯tɐ]) and breiteren ([ˈbʁaɪ̯təʁən]) 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) - “breiter” sits inside “breiteren”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28075, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

breiter is recorded at frequency rank #6,519, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈbʁaɪ̯tɐ]. breiteren is at rank #21,556, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈbʁaɪ̯təʁən].

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 28075, this pair ranks #1,790,971 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of breiter vs breiteren

Shared letters: beirt. Private to "breiter": -. Private to "breiteren": n.

"breiter" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC  ·  "breiteren" · 9 letters · shape CCVVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • breiter ← bbreiter · beriter · breietr · breiterr · breitre · breitter · bretier · brieter
  • breiteren ← bbreiteren · beriteren · breietren · breiteern · breiterenn · breiterne · breiterren · breitreen

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "breiter" and "breiteren" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈbʁaɪ̯tɐ] versus [ˈbʁaɪ̯təʁən]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "breiter" or "breiteren"?
"breiter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,519 in our German list, against #21,556 for "breiteren". 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 "breiter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "breiteren" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,790,971 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "breiter" and "breiteren" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "breiteren 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 #1,790,971 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