reimevsreineTell them apart

Quick tell: reime is a verb, reine is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#33,778
“reime” frequency rank
#3,068
“reine” frequency rank
36846
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature reime reine
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs reimen Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs rein

Where the eye mixes reime and reine

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
reime
5 ch
reine

Visual trap between reime and reine

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: reime is [ˈʁaɪ̯mə] while reine is [ˈʁaɪ̯nə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - m in “reime” becomes n in “reine”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36846, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

reime is recorded at frequency rank #33,778, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈʁaɪ̯mə]. reine is at rank #3,068, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈʁaɪ̯nə].

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 36846, this pair ranks #1,605,241 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of reime vs reine

Shared letters: eir. Private to "reime": m. Private to "reine": n.

"reime" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "reine" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • reimeerime · reiem · reimme · remie · rieme · rreime
  • reineerine · reien · reinne · renie · riene · rreine

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "reime" and "reine" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "reime" is a verb and "reine" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "reime" or "reine"?
"reine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,068 in our German list, against #33,778 for "reime". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "reime" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "reine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,605,241 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "reime" and "reine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "reibe vs reime". 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 #1,605,241 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