RehevsreyTell them apart

Which to use

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

#32,739
“Rehe” frequency rank
#22,116
“rey” frequency rank
54855
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Rehe rey
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Reh König

Where the eye mixes Rehe and rey

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. Rehe runs 4 letters (CVCV) against rey's 3 (CVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
Rehe
3 ch
rey

Visual trap between Rehe and rey

A purely visual mix-up. Rehe ([ˈʁeːə]) and rey ([rej]) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54855, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Rehe is recorded at frequency rank #32,739, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈʁeːə]. rey is at rank #22,116, tagged as anoun, pronounced [rej].

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 54855, this pair ranks #1,002,389 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Rehe vs rey

Shared letters: er. Private to "Rehe": h. Private to "rey": y.

"Rehe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "rey" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Rehe ← reeh · rehhe · rhee · rrehe

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Rehe" for "rey" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈʁeːə] versus [rej]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Rehe" vs "rey" - which ranks higher?
"rey" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,116 in our German list, against #32,739 for "Rehe". 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 "Rehe" and "rey" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Rehe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rey" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,002,389 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Rehe" and "rey" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rech vs Rehe". 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 #1,002,389 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