robovsRostWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#47,698
“robo” frequency rank
#14,913
“Rost” frequency rank
62611
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature robo Rost
Definition Vokativ Singular des Substantivs roba rötlich braunes Produkt der Korrosion von Eisen

Where the eye mixes robo and Rost

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
robo
4 ch
Rost

Look-alike desk: robo vs Rost

A purely visual mix-up. robo ([ˈrɔ̂bɔ]) and Rost ([ʁɔst]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62611, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

robo is recorded at frequency rank #47,698, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈrɔ̂bɔ]. Rost is at rank #14,913, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ʁɔst].

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 62611, this pair ranks #706,545 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of robo vs Rost

Shared letters: or. Private to "robo": b. Private to "Rost": st.

"robo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Rost" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • roboorbo · rboo · robbo · roob · rrobo
  • Rostorst · rosst · rostt · rots · rrost · rsot

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "robo" and "Rost" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈrɔ̂bɔ] versus [ʁɔst]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "robo" or "Rost" show up more?
"Rost" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,913 in our German list, against #47,698 for "robo". 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 "robo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Rost" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #706,545 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "robo" and "Rost" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "robo vs RUB". 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 #706,545 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