eastvsopenConfusable pair

Quick tell: east is a noun, open is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“east” is a noun and “open” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,842
“east” frequency rank
#2,607
“open” frequency rank
13449
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature east open
Definition Ost(en) (Himmelsrichtung) etwas ist nicht geschlossen

Letter map: east vs open

Shared letters muted; letters that set east and open apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. east (VVCC) and open (VCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
east
4 ch
open

Grammar separator: east vs open

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: east is anoun and openanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13449, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

east is recorded at frequency rank #10,842, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. open is at rank #2,607, tagged as anadj, pronounced […].

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 13449, this pair ranks #1,957,926 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of east vs open

Shared letters: e. Private to "east": ast. Private to "open": nop.

"east" · 4 letters · shape VVCC  ·  "open" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • east ← aest · easst · eastt · eats · esat
  • open ← oepn · openn · opne · oppen · poen

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "east" and "open" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "east" is a noun and "open" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "east" or "open" show up more?
"open" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,607 in our German list, against #10,842 for "east". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "east" and "open".

  • Full dictionary entry for "east" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "open" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,957,926 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "east" and "open" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "east vs puzzles". 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 #1,957,926 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