röhrenvsröstenWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#19,027
“röhren” frequency rank
#45,557
“rösten” frequency rank
64584
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature röhren rösten
Definition (laut) weinen Flachs oder Hanf zum Gewinnen von Pflanzenfasern mürbe machen

Where the eye mixes röhren and rösten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. röhren and rösten follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
röhren
6 ch
rösten

Why the eye confuses röhren with rösten

A purely visual mix-up. röhren ([ˈʁøːʁən]) and rösten ([ˈʁœstn̩]) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64584, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

röhren is recorded at frequency rank #19,027, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈʁøːʁən]. rösten is at rank #45,557, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈʁœstn̩].

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 64584, this pair ranks #636,317 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of röhren vs rösten

Shared letters: enrö. Private to "röhren": h. Private to "rösten": st.

"röhren" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "rösten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "röhren" for "rösten" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈʁøːʁən] versus [ˈʁœstn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "röhren" vs "rösten" - which ranks higher?
"röhren" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,027 in our German list, against #45,557 for "rösten". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "röhren" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rösten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #636,317 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "röhren" and "rösten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rollten vs rösten". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #636,317 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