ReligionenvsreligiösesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Religionen is a noun, religiöses is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#6,841
“Religionen” frequency rank
#27,023
“religiöses” frequency rank
33864
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Religionen religiöses
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Religion Nominativ Singular Neutrum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs religiös

Where the eye mixes Religionen and religiöses

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. Religionen and religiöses follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

10 ch
Religionen
10 ch
religiöses

Why the eye confuses Religionen with religiöses

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Religionen is [ʁeliˈɡi̯oːnən] while religiöses is [ʁeliˈɡi̯øːzəs]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33864, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Religionen is recorded at frequency rank #6,841, classified as anoun, pronounced [ʁeliˈɡi̯oːnən]. religiöses is at rank #27,023, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ʁeliˈɡi̯øːzəs].

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 33864, this pair ranks #1,676,344 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Religionen vs religiöses

Shared letters: egilr. Private to "Religionen": no. Private to "religiöses": .

"Religionen" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVVCVC  ·  "religiöses" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Religionenerligionen · reilgionen · relgiionen · religgionen · religinoen · religioenn · religionenn · religionne

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Religionen" and "religiöses" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Religionen" is a noun and "religiöses" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Religionen" or "religiöses" show up more?
"Religionen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,841 in our German list, against #27,023 for "religiöses". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Religionen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "religiöses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,676,344 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Religionen" and "religiöses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "religions vs religiöses". 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 #1,676,344 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