regervsRiegeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: reger is a adjective, Riege is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“reger” is an adjective and “Riege” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#22,858
“reger” frequency rank
#36,595
“Riege” frequency rank
59453
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature reger Riege
Definition Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs rege Bezeichnung für eine Turnmannschaft

Where the eye mixes reger and Riege

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. reger (CVCVC) and Riege (CVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
reger
5 ch
Riege

Why the eye confuses reger with Riege

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: reger is [ˈʁeːɡɐ] while Riege is [ˈʁiːɡə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59453, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

reger is recorded at frequency rank #22,858, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈʁeːɡɐ]. Riege is at rank #36,595, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈʁiːɡə].

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 59453, this pair ranks #823,969 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of reger vs Riege

Shared letters: egr. Private to "reger": -. Private to "Riege": i.

"reger" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "Riege" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • reger ← erger · reegr · regerr · regger · regre · rgeer · rreger
  • Riege ← irege · rieeg · riegge · rigee · rriege

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "reger" for "Riege" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "reger" is an adjective and "Riege" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "reger" or "Riege" show up more?
"reger" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,858 in our German list, against #36,595 for "Riege". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "reger" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Riege" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #823,969 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "reger" and "Riege" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Riege vs Ringes". 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 #823,969 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