reizevsRuineWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: reize is a verb, Ruine is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“reize” is a verb and “Ruine” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#21,037
“reize” frequency rank
#16,535
“Ruine” frequency rank
37572
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature reize Ruine
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs reizen teilweise eingestürztes, verfallenes oder zerstörtes Bauwerk

Where the eye mixes reize and Ruine

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

5 ch
reize
5 ch
Ruine

Visual trap between reize and Ruine

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: reize is [ˈʁaɪ̯t͡sə] while Ruine is [ʁuˈiːnə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37572, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

reize is recorded at frequency rank #21,037, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈʁaɪ̯t͡sə]. Ruine is at rank #16,535, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ʁuˈiːnə].

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 37572, this pair ranks #1,586,687 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of reize vs Ruine

Shared letters: eir. Private to "reize": z. Private to "Ruine": nu.

"reize" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "Ruine" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • reizeerize · reiez · reizze · rezie · rieze · rreize
  • Ruineriune · rruine · ruien · runie · urine

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "reize" for "Ruine" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "reize" is a verb and "Ruine" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "reize" vs "Ruine" - which ranks higher?
"Ruine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,535 in our German list, against #21,037 for "reize". 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 "reize" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Ruine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,586,687 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "reize" and "Ruine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "reibe vs reize". 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 #1,586,687 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