RöhrevsRuheWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#13,928
“Röhre” frequency rank
#1,120
“Ruhe” frequency rank
15048
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Röhre Ruhe
Definition ein längerer, zylinderförmiger Hohlkörper von schmalem Durchmesser zur Weiterleitung von Flüssigkeiten oder Gasen Abwesenheit von Ablenkung, Störung, Geräusch und Bewegung; (fast völlige) Stille und Bewegungslosigkeit

Where the eye mixes Röhre and Ruhe

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

5 ch
Röhre
4 ch
Ruhe

Why the eye confuses Röhre with Ruhe

A purely visual mix-up. Röhre ([ˈʁøːʁə]) and Ruhe ([ˈʁuːə]) 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 15048, 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]. Ruhe is at rank #1,120, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈʁuːə].

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 15048, this pair ranks #1,946,789 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Röhre vs Ruhe

Shared letters: ehr. Private to "Röhre": ö. Private to "Ruhe": u.

"Röhre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Ruhe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Ruherhue · rruhe · rueh · ruhhe · urhe

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Röhre" and "Ruhe" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈʁøːʁə] versus [ˈʁuːə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "Röhre" or "Ruhe" show up more?
"Ruhe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,120 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.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Röhre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Ruhe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,946,789 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Röhre" and "Ruhe" 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 #1,946,789 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