GewölbevsgewölbtWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#20,938
“Gewölbe” frequency rank
#45,988
“gewölbt” frequency rank
66926
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Gewölbe gewölbt
Definition gebogener oberer Raumabschluss mit einem Gewölbe versehen

Where the eye mixes Gewölbe and gewölbt

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

7 ch
Gewölbe
7 ch
gewölbt

Visual trap between Gewölbe and gewölbt

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Gewölbe is [ɡəˈvœlbə] while gewölbt is [ɡəˈvœlpt]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “Gewölbe” becomes t in “gewölbt”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66926, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Gewölbe is recorded at frequency rank #20,938, classified as anoun, pronounced [ɡəˈvœlbə]. gewölbt is at rank #45,988, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ɡəˈvœlpt].

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 66926, this pair ranks #557,003 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Gewölbe vs gewölbt

Shared letters: beglwö. Private to "Gewölbe": -. Private to "gewölbt": t.

"Gewölbe" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "gewölbt" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Gewölbe" and "gewölbt" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Gewölbe" is a noun and "gewölbt" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Gewölbe" or "gewölbt" show up more?
"Gewölbe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,938 in our German list, against #45,988 for "gewölbt". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Gewölbe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gewölbt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #557,003 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Gewölbe" and "gewölbt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gewölbt vs gewollte". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #557,003 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