KarrierevsKarrierenTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,701
“Karriere” frequency rank
#29,653
“Karrieren” frequency rank
31354
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Karriere Karrieren
Definition (erfolgreicher) beruflicher Werdegang, (schnell zurückgelegte) Laufbahn Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Karriere

Where the eye mixes Karriere and Karrieren

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.

8 ch
Karriere
9 ch
Karrieren

Look-alike desk: Karriere vs Karrieren

A purely visual mix-up. Karriere ([kaˈʁi̯eːʁə]) and Karrieren ([kaˈʁi̯eːʁən]) 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) - “Karriere” sits inside “Karrieren”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31354, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Karriere is recorded at frequency rank #1,701, classified as anoun, pronounced [kaˈʁi̯eːʁə]. Karrieren is at rank #29,653, tagged as anoun, pronounced [kaˈʁi̯eːʁən].

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 31354, this pair ranks #1,729,789 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Karriere vs Karrieren

Shared letters: aeikr. Private to "Karriere": -. Private to "Karrieren": n.

"Karriere" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCV  ·  "Karrieren" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Karriereakrriere · kariere · karirere · karreire · karrieer · karrierre · karriree · kkarriere
  • Karrierenakrrieren · karieren · karireren · karreiren · karrieern · karrierenn · karrierne · karrierren

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Karriere" for "Karrieren" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([kaˈʁi̯eːʁə] versus [kaˈʁi̯eːʁən]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Karriere" vs "Karrieren" - which ranks higher?
"Karriere" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,701 in our German list, against #29,653 for "Karrieren". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Karriere" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Karrieren" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,729,789 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Karriere" and "Karrieren" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Karrieren vs kastrieren". 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 #1,729,789 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