derbvsdorWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: derb is a adjective, dor is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“derb” is an adjective and “dor” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#42,415
“derb” frequency rank
#35,140
“dor” frequency rank
77555
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature derb dor
Definition unverdorben, kräftig 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs dare

Letter map: derb vs dor

Shared letters muted; letters that set derb and dor apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
derb
3 ch
dor

Part-of-speech tell for derb / dor

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: derb is anadjective and doraverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77555, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

derb is recorded at frequency rank #42,415, classified as anadj, pronounced [dɛʁp]. dor is at rank #35,140, tagged as averb, 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 77555, this pair ranks #258,135 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of derb vs dor

Shared letters: dr. Private to "derb": be. Private to "dor": o.

"derb" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "dor" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • derbdderb · debr · derbb · derrb · dreb · edrb

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "derb" for "dor" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "derb" is an adjective and "dor" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "derb" or "dor"?
"dor" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,140 in our German list, against #42,415 for "derb". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "derb" and "dor".

  • Full dictionary entry for "derb" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dor" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #258,135 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "derb" and "dor" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "derb vs dörr". 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 #258,135 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