observationvspoweredWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: observation is a noun, powered is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“observation” is a noun and “powered” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#49,936
“observation” frequency rank
#38,951
“powered” frequency rank
88887
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature observation powered
Definition Beobachtung, Observation, Überwachung Präteritum (simple past) des Verbs power

Letter map: observation vs powered

Shared letters muted; letters that set observation and powered apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

11 ch
observation
7 ch
powered

Grammar separator: observation vs powered

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: observation is anoun and poweredaverb. On the page they differ by 4 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 88887, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

observation is recorded at frequency rank #49,936, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. powered is at rank #38,951, tagged as averb, 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 88887, this pair ranks #63,374 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of observation vs powered

Shared letters: eor. Private to "observation": abinstv. Private to "powered": dpw.

"observation" · 11 letters · shape VCCVCCVCVVC  ·  "powered" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • observationboservation · obbservation · obesrvation · obseravtion · obserrvation · observaiton · observatino · observationn
  • poweredopwered · poewred · poweerd · powerde · poweredd · powerred · powreed · powwered

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "observation" for "powered" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "observation" is a noun and "powered" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "observation" vs "powered" - which ranks higher?
"powered" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #38,951 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.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "observation" and "powered".

  • Full dictionary entry for "observation" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "powered" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #63,374 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "observation" and "powered" 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 #63,374 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