GebeinevsgemeinerTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#34,113
“Gebeine” frequency rank
#27,743
“gemeiner” frequency rank
61856
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Gebeine gemeiner
Definition Variante für den Dativ Singular des Substantivs Gebein Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs gemein

Where the eye mixes Gebeine and gemeiner

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. Gebeine runs 7 letters (CVCVVCV) against gemeiner's 8 (CVCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
Gebeine
8 ch
gemeiner

Visual trap between Gebeine and gemeiner

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Gebeine is [ɡəˈbaɪ̯nə] while gemeiner is [ɡəˈmaɪ̯nɐ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61856, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Gebeine is recorded at frequency rank #34,113, classified as anoun, pronounced [ɡəˈbaɪ̯nə]. gemeiner is at rank #27,743, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ɡəˈmaɪ̯nɐ].

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 61856, this pair ranks #734,113 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Gebeine vs gemeiner

Shared letters: egin. Private to "Gebeine": b. Private to "gemeiner": mr.

"Gebeine" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV  ·  "gemeiner" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Gebeine ← egbeine · gbeeine · gebbeine · gebeien · gebeinne · gebenie · gebiene · geebine
  • gemeiner ← egmeiner · geeminer · gemeienr · gemeinerr · gemeinner · gemeinre · gemenier · gemiener

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Gebeine" and "gemeiner" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Gebeine" is a noun and "gemeiner" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Gebeine" or "gemeiner" show up more?
"gemeiner" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,743 in our German list, against #34,113 for "Gebeine". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Gebeine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gemeiner" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #734,113 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Gebeine" and "gemeiner" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Gebeine vs gemeines". 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 #734,113 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