RautevsrueWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#32,734
“Raute” frequency rank
#16,534
“rue” frequency rank
49268
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Raute rue
Definition Viereck mit vier gleichlangen Seiten Reue

Where the eye mixes Raute and rue

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Raute
3 ch
rue

Why the eye confuses Raute with rue

A purely visual mix-up. Raute ([ˈʁaʊ̯tə]) and rue ([ruː]) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49268, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Raute is recorded at frequency rank #32,734, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈʁaʊ̯tə]. rue is at rank #16,534, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ruː].

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 49268, this pair ranks #1,217,785 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Raute vs rue

Shared letters: eru. Private to "Raute": at. Private to "rue": -.

"Raute" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "rue" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Rautearute · ratue · rauet · rautte · rraute · ruate

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Raute" and "rue" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈʁaʊ̯tə] versus [ruː]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Raute" vs "rue" - which ranks higher?
"rue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,534 in our German list, against #32,734 for "Raute". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "Raute" and "rue" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Raute" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,217,785 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Raute" and "rue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "raunen vs Raute". 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 #1,217,785 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