broadcastvsbyWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#45,189
“broadcast” frequency rank
#1,627
“by” frequency rank
46816
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature broadcast by
Definition eine Radio-/ Fernsehsendung ausstrahlen, übertragen Stadt

Letter map: broadcast vs by

Shared letters muted; letters that set broadcast and by apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

9 ch
broadcast
2 ch
by

Grammar separator: broadcast vs by

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: broadcast is averb and byanoun. On the page they differ by 7 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46816, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

broadcast is recorded at frequency rank #45,189, classified as averb, pronounced […]. by is at rank #1,627, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

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 46816, this pair ranks #1,305,974 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of broadcast vs by

Shared letters: b. Private to "broadcast": acdorst. Private to "by": y.

"broadcast" · 9 letters · shape CCVVCCVCC  ·  "by" · 2 letters · shape CV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • broadcastbbroadcast · boradcast · braodcast · broacdast · broadacst · broadcasst · broadcastt · broadcats

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "broadcast" and "by" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "broadcast" is a verb and "by" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "broadcast" or "by" show up more?
"by" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,627 in our German list, against #45,189 for "broadcast". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

You've compared "broadcast" and "by". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "broadcast" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "by" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,305,974 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "broadcast" and "by" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "broadcast vs puzzles". 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 #1,305,974 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