DosenvsDrüsenTell them apart

Which to use

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

#8,542
“Dosen” frequency rank
#42,431
“Drüsen” frequency rank
50973
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Dosen Drüsen
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Dose Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Drüse

Where the eye mixes Dosen and Drüsen

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

5 ch
Dosen
6 ch
Drüsen

Look-alike desk: Dosen vs Drüsen

A purely visual mix-up. Dosen ([ˈdoːzn̩]) and Drüsen ([ˈdʁyːzn̩]) 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 50973, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Dosen is recorded at frequency rank #8,542, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈdoːzn̩]. Drüsen is at rank #42,431, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈdʁyːzn̩].

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 50973, this pair ranks #1,153,369 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Dosen vs Drüsen

Shared letters: dens. Private to "Dosen": o. Private to "Drüsen": rü.

"Dosen" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "Drüsen" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Dosen ← ddosen · doesn · dosenn · dosne · dossen · dsoen · odsen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Dosen" and "Drüsen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈdoːzn̩] versus [ˈdʁyːzn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Dosen" vs "Drüsen" - which ranks higher?
"Dosen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,542 in our German list, against #42,431 for "Drüsen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Dosen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Drüsen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,153,369 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Dosen" and "Drüsen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dissen vs Drüsen". 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 #1,153,369 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