OffensevsöffneConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#35,940
“Offense” frequency rank
#13,081
“öffne” frequency rank
49021
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Offense öffne
Definition Gesamtheit der angreifenden Spieler 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs öffnen

Letter map: Offense vs öffne

Shared letters muted; letters that set Offense and öffne apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

7 ch
Offense
5 ch
öffne

Role in the sentence - Offense and öffne

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Offense is anoun and öffneaverb. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49021, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Offense is recorded at frequency rank #35,940, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. öffne is at rank #13,081, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈœfnə].

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 49021, this pair ranks #1,226,977 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Offense vs öffne

Shared letters: efn. Private to "Offense": os. Private to "öffne": ö.

"Offense" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV  ·  "öffne" · 5 letters · shape VCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Offensefofense · ofefnse · ofense · offennse · offensse · offesne · offnese

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Offense" for "öffne" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Offense" is a noun and "öffne" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Offense" or "öffne" show up more?
"öffne" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,081 in our German list, against #35,940 for "Offense". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "Offense" vs "öffne" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Offense" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "öffne" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,226,977 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Offense" and "öffne" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Offense 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 #1,226,977 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