DrogenvsDrüsenWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#2,333
“Drogen” frequency rank
#42,431
“Drüsen” frequency rank
44764
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Drogen Drüsen
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Droge Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Drüse

Where the eye mixes Drogen and Drüsen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Drogen and Drüsen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
Drogen
6 ch
Drüsen

Visual trap between Drogen and Drüsen

A purely visual mix-up. Drogen ([ˈdʁoːɡn̩]) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44764, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Drogen is recorded at frequency rank #2,333, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈdʁoːɡn̩]. 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 44764, this pair ranks #1,375,495 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Drogen vs Drüsen

Shared letters: denr. Private to "Drogen": go. Private to "Drüsen": sü.

"Drogen" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "Drüsen" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Drogen ← ddrogen · dorgen · drgoen · droegn · drogenn · droggen · drogne · drrogen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Drogen" and "Drüsen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈdʁoːɡn̩] versus [ˈdʁyːzn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "Drogen" or "Drüsen" show up more?
"Drogen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,333 in our German list, against #42,431 for "Drüsen". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Drogen" 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 #1,375,495 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Drogen" 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 #1,375,495 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