DrohnevsDrohnenWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#13,125
“Drohne” frequency rank
#10,453
“Drohnen” frequency rank
23578
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Drohne Drohnen
Definition männliche Biene Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Drohne

Where the eye mixes Drohne and Drohnen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. Drohne runs 6 letters (CCVCCV) against Drohnen's 7 (CCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
Drohne
7 ch
Drohnen

Why the eye confuses Drohne with Drohnen

A purely visual mix-up. Drohne ([ˈdʁoːnə]) and Drohnen ([ˈdʁoːnən]) 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) - “Drohne” sits inside “Drohnen”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23578, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Drohne is recorded at frequency rank #13,125, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈdʁoːnə]. Drohnen is at rank #10,453, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈdʁoːnən].

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 23578, this pair ranks #1,859,418 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Drohne vs Drohnen

Shared letters: dehnor. Private to "Drohne": -. Private to "Drohnen": -.

"Drohne" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV  ·  "Drohnen" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Drohne ← ddrohne · dorhne · drhone · drohhne · dronhe · drrohne · rdohne
  • Drohnen ← ddrohnen · dorhnen · drhonen · drohhnen · drohnenn · drohnne · drohnnen · dronhen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Drohne" for "Drohnen" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈdʁoːnə] versus [ˈdʁoːnən]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Drohne" or "Drohnen"?
"Drohnen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,453 in our German list, against #13,125 for "Drohne". 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 "Drohne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Drohnen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,859,418 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Drohne" and "Drohnen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Drohne vs dröhnt". 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 #1,859,418 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