RockvsrottWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#2,217
“Rock” frequency rank
#30,266
“rott” frequency rank
32483
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Rock rott
Definition unten offenes Kleidungsstück, das den Unterleib und (wenigstens teilweise) die Beine bedeckt (meist für Frauen) im Verfall/in Zersetzung begriffen

Where the eye mixes Rock and rott

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

4 ch
Rock
4 ch
rott

Why the eye confuses Rock with rott

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Rock is [ʁɔk] while rott is [ʁɔt]. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32483, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Rock is recorded at frequency rank #2,217, classified as anoun, pronounced [ʁɔk]. rott is at rank #30,266, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ʁɔt].

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 32483, this pair ranks #1,706,615 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Rock vs rott

Shared letters: or. Private to "Rock": ck. Private to "rott": t.

"Rock" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "rott" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Rockorck · rcok · rocck · rockk · rokc · rrock
  • rottortt · rrott · rtot

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Rock" for "rott" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Rock" is a noun and "rott" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Rock" vs "rott" - which ranks higher?
"Rock" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,217 in our German list, against #30,266 for "rott". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "Rock" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rott" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,706,615 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Rock" and "rott" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rofl vs rott". 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 #1,706,615 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