robotvsrolltWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#28,365
“robot” frequency rank
#10,552
“rollt” frequency rank
38917
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature robot rollt
Definition Roboter 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs rollen

Where the eye mixes robot and rollt

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

5 ch
robot
5 ch
rollt

Why the eye confuses robot with rollt

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: robot is [ˈrəʊbɒt] while rollt is [ʁɔlt]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38917, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

robot is recorded at frequency rank #28,365, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈrəʊbɒt]. rollt is at rank #10,552, tagged as averb, pronounced [ʁɔlt].

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 38917, this pair ranks #1,551,171 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of robot vs rollt

Shared letters: ort. Private to "robot": b. Private to "rollt": l.

"robot" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "rollt" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • robotorbot · rboot · robbot · robott · robto · roobt · rrobot
  • rolltorllt · rlolt · rolltt · rolt · roltl · rrollt

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "robot" for "rollt" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "robot" is a noun and "rollt" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "robot" or "rollt" show up more?
"rollt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,552 in our German list, against #28,365 for "robot". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "robot" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rollt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,551,171 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "robot" and "rollt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "robo vs robot". 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 #1,551,171 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