rodenvsrottenTell them apart

Which to use

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

#34,337
“roden” frequency rank
#34,340
“rotten” frequency rank
68677
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature roden rotten
Definition einen Wald durch Fällen der Bäume und Ausgraben der Wurzeln urbar machen faulen, verfallen

Where the eye mixes roden and rotten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. roden runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against rotten's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
roden
6 ch
rotten

Look-alike desk: roden vs rotten

A purely visual mix-up. roden ([ˈʁoːdn̩]) and rotten ([ˈʁɔtn̩]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68677, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

roden is recorded at frequency rank #34,337, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈʁoːdn̩]. rotten is at rank #34,340, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈʁɔtn̩].

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 68677, this pair ranks #500,361 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of roden vs rotten

Shared letters: enor. Private to "roden": d. Private to "rotten": t.

"roden" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "rotten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • roden ← rdoen · rodden · rodenn · rodne · roedn · rroden
  • rotten ← rotetn · rottenn · rottne · rrotten · rtoten

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "roden" for "rotten" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈʁoːdn̩] versus [ˈʁɔtn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "roden" or "rotten"?
"roden" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,337 in our German list, against #34,340 for "rotten". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "roden" and "rotten" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "roden" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rotten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #500,361 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "roden" and "rotten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Ramen vs roden". 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 #500,361 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