rolevsroterWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#35,998
“role” frequency rank
#6,846
“roter” frequency rank
42844
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature role roter
Definition die Rolle Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs rot

Letter map: role vs roter

Shared letters muted; letters that set role and roter apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch
role
5 ch
roter

Grammar separator: role vs roter

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: role is anoun and roteranadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42844, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

role is recorded at frequency rank #35,998, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. roter is at rank #6,846, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈʁoːtɐ].

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 42844, this pair ranks #1,436,707 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of role vs roter

Shared letters: eor. Private to "role": l. Private to "roter": t.

"role" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "roter" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • roleorle · rloe · roel · rrole
  • roterorter · roetr · roterr · rotre · rotter · rroter · rtoer

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "role" and "roter" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "role" is a noun and "roter" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "role" vs "roter" - which ranks higher?
"roter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,846 in our German list, against #35,998 for "role". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "role" vs "roter" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "role" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "roter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,436,707 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "role" and "roter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs role". 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 #1,436,707 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