DrogevsDrogenTell them apart

Which to use

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

#11,212
“Droge” frequency rank
#2,333
“Drogen” frequency rank
13545
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Droge Drogen
Definition Substanz biologischen Ursprungs, die eine heilende Wirkung auf den Körper hat Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Droge

Where the eye mixes Droge and Drogen

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

5 ch
Droge
6 ch
Drogen

Visual trap between Droge and Drogen

A purely visual mix-up. Droge ([ˈdʁoːɡə]) and Drogen ([ˈdʁoːɡn̩]) 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 extra letter(s) - “Droge” sits inside “Drogen”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13545, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Droge is recorded at frequency rank #11,212, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈdʁoːɡə]. Drogen is at rank #2,333, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈdʁoːɡn̩].

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 13545, this pair ranks #1,957,296 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Droge vs Drogen

Shared letters: degor. Private to "Droge": -. Private to "Drogen": n.

"Droge" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "Drogen" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Droge ← ddroge · dorge · drgoe · droeg · drogge · drroge · rdoge
  • Drogen ← ddrogen · dorgen · drgoen · droegn · drogenn · droggen · drogne · drrogen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Droge" for "Drogen" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈdʁoːɡə] versus [ˈdʁoːɡn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Droge" or "Drogen"?
"Drogen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,333 in our German list, against #11,212 for "Droge". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Droge" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Drogen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,957,296 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Droge" and "Drogen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dove vs Droge". 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 #1,957,296 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