BusvsBüsteTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,626
“Bus” frequency rank
#26,801
“Büste” frequency rank
28427
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Bus Büste
Definition als Verkehrsmittel im öffentlichen Personennahverkehr eingesetztes vielsitziges, großes Kraftfahrzeug zur Beförderung einer größeren Anzahl von Personen plastisch gestaltetes Abbild einer Person bis zur Schulter oder als Halbfigur

Where the eye mixes Bus and Büste

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
Bus
5 ch
Büste

Look-alike desk: Bus vs Büste

A purely visual mix-up. Bus ([bʊs]) and Büste ([ˈbʏstə]) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28427, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Bus is recorded at frequency rank #1,626, classified as anoun, pronounced [bʊs]. Büste is at rank #26,801, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈbʏstə].

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 28427, this pair ranks #1,784,958 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Bus vs Büste

Shared letters: bs. Private to "Bus": u. Private to "Büste": etü.

"Bus" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "Büste" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Bus" for "Büste" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([bʊs] versus [ˈbʏstə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Bus" vs "Büste" - which ranks higher?
"Bus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,626 in our German list, against #26,801 for "Büste". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "Bus" and "Büste" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Bus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Büste" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,784,958 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Bus" and "Büste" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Bussi vs Büste". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,784,958 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