gedehntvsgedeihtWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: gedehnt is a adjective, gedeiht is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“gedehnt” is an adjective and “gedeiht” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#49,699
“gedehnt” frequency rank
#25,141
“gedeiht” frequency rank
74840
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gedehnt gedeiht
Definition zeitlich: etwas, was sich in die Länge zieht, was lange dauert 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs gedeihen

Where the eye mixes gedehnt and gedeiht

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. gedehnt (CVCVCCC) and gedeiht (CVCVVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
gedehnt
7 ch
gedeiht

Why the eye confuses gedehnt with gedeiht

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gedehnt is [ɡəˈdeːnt] while gedeiht is [ɡəˈdaɪ̯t]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74840, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gedehnt is recorded at frequency rank #49,699, classified as anadj, pronounced [ɡəˈdeːnt]. gedeiht is at rank #25,141, tagged as averb, pronounced [ɡəˈdaɪ̯t].

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 74840, this pair ranks #323,097 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of gedehnt vs gedeiht

Shared letters: deght. Private to "gedehnt": n. Private to "gedeiht": i.

"gedehnt" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC  ·  "gedeiht" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gedehnt ← egdehnt · gdeehnt · geddehnt · gedehhnt · gedehnnt · gedehntt · gedehtn · gedenht
  • gedeiht ← egdeiht · gdeeiht · geddeiht · gedehit · gedeihht · gedeihtt · gedeith · gedieht

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "gedehnt" and "gedeiht" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gedehnt" is an adjective and "gedeiht" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "gedehnt" or "gedeiht"?
"gedeiht" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,141 in our German list, against #49,699 for "gedehnt". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "gedehnt" and "gedeiht" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gedehnt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gedeiht" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #323,097 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gedehnt" and "gedeiht" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gedehnt vs gelehnt". 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 #323,097 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