murdervsobservationConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#46,860
“murder” frequency rank
#49,936
“observation” frequency rank
96796
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature murder observation
Definition Mord, Ermordung Beobachtung, Observation, Überwachung

Letter map: murder vs observation

Shared letters muted; letters that set murder and observation apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. murder runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against observation's 11 (VCCVCCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
murder
11 ch
observation

Corpus notes: murder and observation

murder and observation are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 5 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 96796, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

murder is recorded at frequency rank #46,860, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. observation is at rank #49,936, tagged as anoun, 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 96796, this pair ranks #5,961 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of murder vs observation

Shared letters: er. Private to "murder": dmu. Private to "observation": abinostv.

"murder" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "observation" · 11 letters · shape VCCVCCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • murder ← mmurder · mruder · mudrer · murdder · murderr · murdre · muredr · murrder
  • observation ← boservation · obbservation · obesrvation · obseravtion · obserrvation · observaiton · observatino · observationn

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "murder" for "observation" ever safe?
No. They differ by 5 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "murder" vs "observation" - which ranks higher?
"murder" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #46,860 in our German list, against #49,936 for "observation". 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 "murder" and "observation".

  • Full dictionary entry for "murder" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "observation" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #5,961 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "murder" and "observation" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "observation 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 #5,961 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