rolevsrufeTell them apart

Quick tell: role is a noun, rufe is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#35,998
“role” frequency rank
#6,967
“rufe” frequency rank
42965
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature role rufe
Definition die Rolle 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs rufen

Letter map: role vs rufe

Shared letters muted; letters that set role and rufe apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
role
4 ch
rufe

Part-of-speech tell for role / rufe

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: role is anoun and rufeaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42965, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

role is recorded at frequency rank #35,998, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. rufe is at rank #6,967, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈʁuːfə].

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 42965, this pair ranks #1,432,853 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of role vs rufe

Shared letters: er. Private to "role": lo. Private to "rufe": fu.

"role" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "rufe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • roleorle · rloe · roel · rrole
  • ruferfue · rrufe · ruef · ruffe · urfe

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "role" and "rufe" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "role" is a noun and "rufe" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "role" or "rufe" show up more?
"rufe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,967 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.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "role" and "rufe".

  • Full dictionary entry for "role" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rufe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,432,853 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "role" and "rufe" 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 #1,432,853 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