RöhrevsRolleWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#13,928
“Röhre” frequency rank
#606
“Rolle” frequency rank
14534
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Röhre Rolle
Definition ein längerer, zylinderförmiger Hohlkörper von schmalem Durchmesser zur Weiterleitung von Flüssigkeiten oder Gasen drehbares, kreisförmiges Rad oder Walze, zum Beispiel

Where the eye mixes Röhre and Rolle

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

5 ch
Röhre
5 ch
Rolle

Visual trap between Röhre and Rolle

A purely visual mix-up. Röhre ([ˈʁøːʁə]) and Rolle ([ˈʁɔlə]) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14534, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Röhre is recorded at frequency rank #13,928, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈʁøːʁə]. Rolle is at rank #606, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈʁɔlə].

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 14534, this pair ranks #1,950,534 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Röhre vs Rolle

Shared letters: er. Private to "Röhre": . Private to "Rolle": lo.

"Röhre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Rolle" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Rolleorlle · rlole · rolel · rrolle

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Röhre" and "Rolle" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈʁøːʁə] versus [ˈʁɔlə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "Röhre" or "Rolle" show up more?
"Rolle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #606 in our German list, against #13,928 for "Röhre". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Röhre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Rolle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,950,534 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Röhre" and "Rolle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Robbe vs Röhre". 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 #1,950,534 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