drehtvsdrohtWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#2,951
“dreht” frequency rank
#3,306
“droht” frequency rank
6257
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dreht droht
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs drehen 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs drohen

Where the eye mixes dreht and droht

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
dreht
5 ch
droht

Look-alike desk: dreht vs droht

A purely visual mix-up. dreht ([dʁeːt]) and droht ([dʁoːt]) 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 a single letter - e in “dreht” becomes o in “droht”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6257, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dreht is recorded at frequency rank #2,951, classified as averb, pronounced [dʁeːt]. droht is at rank #3,306, tagged as averb, pronounced [dʁoːt].

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 6257, this pair ranks #1,992,226 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dreht vs droht

Shared letters: dhrt. Private to "dreht": e. Private to "droht": o.

"dreht" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "droht" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • drehtddreht · derht · drehht · drehtt · dreth · drhet · drreht · rdeht
  • drohtddroht · dorht · drhot · drohht · drohtt · droth · drroht · rdoht

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dreht" and "droht" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([dʁeːt] versus [dʁoːt]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "dreht" or "droht" show up more?
"dreht" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,951 in our German list, against #3,306 for "droht". 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 "dreht" and "droht" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dreht" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "droht" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,992,226 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dreht" and "droht" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "diet vs dreht". 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 #1,992,226 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