brickvsBrückeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#40,448
“brick” frequency rank
#2,054
“Brücke” frequency rank
42502
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature brick Brücke
Definition der Ziegelstein künstlicher Weg zur Überquerung eines Hindernisses

Where the eye mixes brick and Brücke

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. brick runs 5 letters (CCVCC) against Brücke's 6 (CCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
brick
6 ch
Brücke

Visual trap between brick and Brücke

A purely visual mix-up. brick ([bɹɪk]) and Brücke ([ˈbʁʏkə]) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42502, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

brick is recorded at frequency rank #40,448, classified as anoun, pronounced [bɹɪk]. Brücke is at rank #2,054, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈbʁʏkə].

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 42502, this pair ranks #1,447,338 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of brick vs Brücke

Shared letters: bckr. Private to "brick": i. Private to "Brücke": eü.

"brick" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "Brücke" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • brick ← bbrick · birck · brcik · bricck · brickk · brikc · brrick · rbick

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "brick" for "Brücke" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([bɹɪk] versus [ˈbʁʏkə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "brick" vs "Brücke" - which ranks higher?
"Brücke" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,054 in our German list, against #40,448 for "brick". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "brick" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Brücke" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,447,338 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "brick" and "Brücke" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bic vs brick". 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 #1,447,338 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