rotvsrotemWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,020
“rot” frequency rank
#15,984
“rotem” frequency rank
17004
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rot rotem
Definition eine bunte Farbe, im Spektrum die langwelligste Farbe; eine der drei Grundfarben des digitalen RGB-Farbraums Dativ Singular Maskulinum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs rot

Where the eye mixes rot and rotem

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

3 ch
rot
5 ch
rotem

Look-alike desk: rot vs rotem

A purely visual mix-up. rot ([ʁoːt]) and rotem ([ˈʁoːtəm]) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “rot” sits inside “rotem”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17004, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rot is recorded at frequency rank #1,020, classified as anadj, pronounced [ʁoːt]. rotem is at rank #15,984, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈʁoːtəm].

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 17004, this pair ranks #1,931,187 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of rot vs rotem

Shared letters: ort. Private to "rot": -. Private to "rotem": em.

"rot" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "rotem" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rotemortem · roetm · rotemm · rotme · rottem · rrotem · rtoem

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "rot" and "rotem" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ʁoːt] versus [ˈʁoːtəm]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "rot" or "rotem"?
"rot" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,020 in our German list, against #15,984 for "rotem". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "rot" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rotem" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,931,187 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rot" and "rotem" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rotem vs Rotor". 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 #1,931,187 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