BrotvsBüroWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#2,585
“Brot” frequency rank
#1,588
“Büro” frequency rank
4173
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Brot Büro
Definition aus hauptsächlich Mehl, Wasser und Salz gebackenes Nahrungsmittel Dienststelle oder Geschäftsräume, wo schriftliche oder verwaltende Arbeiten erledigt werden

Where the eye mixes Brot and Büro

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Brot
4 ch
Büro

Why the eye confuses Brot with Büro

A purely visual mix-up. Brot ([bʁoːt]) and Büro ([byˈʁoː]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4173, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Brot is recorded at frequency rank #2,585, classified as anoun, pronounced [bʁoːt]. Büro is at rank #1,588, tagged as anoun, pronounced [byˈʁoː].

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 4173, this pair ranks #1,998,388 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Brot vs Büro

Shared letters: bor. Private to "Brot": t. Private to "Büro": ü.

"Brot" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "Büro" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Brotbbrot · bort · brott · brrot · brto · rbot

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Brot" for "Büro" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([bʁoːt] versus [byˈʁoː]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "Brot" or "Büro" show up more?
"Büro" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,588 in our German list, against #2,585 for "Brot". 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 "Brot" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Büro" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,998,388 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Brot" and "Büro" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Brot vs brun". 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 #1,998,388 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