reellevsreeseWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: reelle is a adjective, reese is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“reelle” is an adjective and “reese” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#34,327
“reelle” frequency rank
#31,750
“reese” frequency rank
66077
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature reelle reese
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs reell 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs reesen

Where the eye mixes reelle and reese

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. reelle runs 6 letters (CVVCCV) against reese's 5 (CVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
reelle
5 ch
reese

Look-alike desk: reelle vs reese

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: reelle is [ʁeˈɛlə] while reese is [ˈʁeːzə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66077, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

reelle is recorded at frequency rank #34,327, classified as anadj, pronounced [ʁeˈɛlə]. reese is at rank #31,750, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈʁeːzə].

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 66077, this pair ranks #585,367 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of reelle vs reese

Shared letters: er. Private to "reelle": l. Private to "reese": s.

"reelle" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "reese" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • reelle ← erelle · reele · reelel · relele · relle · rreelle
  • reese ← erese · reees · reesse · rese · resee · rreese

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "reelle" for "reese" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "reelle" is an adjective and "reese" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "reelle" or "reese" show up more?
"reese" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,750 in our German list, against #34,327 for "reelle". 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 "reelle" and "reese" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "reelle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "reese" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #585,367 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "reelle" and "reese" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "reese vs regst". 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 #585,367 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