raunenvsRaupenWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#49,191
“raunen” frequency rank
#23,280
“Raupen” frequency rank
72471
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature raunen Raupen
Definition mit gedämpfter Stimme sprechen Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Raupe

Where the eye mixes raunen and Raupen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. raunen and Raupen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
raunen
6 ch
Raupen

Look-alike desk: raunen vs Raupen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: raunen is [ˈʁaʊ̯nən] while Raupen is [ˈʁaʊ̯pn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - n in “raunen” becomes p in “Raupen”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72471, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

raunen is recorded at frequency rank #49,191, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈʁaʊ̯nən]. Raupen is at rank #23,280, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈʁaʊ̯pn̩].

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 72471, this pair ranks #387,450 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of raunen vs Raupen

Shared letters: aenru. Private to "raunen": -. Private to "Raupen": p.

"raunen" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "Raupen" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • raunen ← arunen · ranuen · raunenn · raunne · raunnen · rraunen · ruanen
  • Raupen ← arupen · rapuen · rauepn · raupenn · raupne · rauppen · rraupen · ruapen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "raunen" for "Raupen" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "raunen" is a verb and "Raupen" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "raunen" or "Raupen"?
"Raupen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,280 in our German list, against #49,191 for "raunen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "raunen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Raupen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #387,450 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "raunen" and "Raupen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Ramen vs raunen". 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 #387,450 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