roundvsrundTell them apart

Which to use

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

#21,751
“round” frequency rank
#460
“rund” frequency rank
22211
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature round rund
Definition rund (kreisförmig) kreisförmig (eben)

Where the eye mixes round and rund

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
round
4 ch
rund

Why the eye confuses round with rund

A purely visual mix-up. round ([raʊnd]) and rund ([ʁʊnt]) 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 22211, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

round is recorded at frequency rank #21,751, classified as anadj, pronounced [raʊnd]. rund is at rank #460, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ʁʊnt].

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 22211, this pair ranks #1,876,945 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of round vs rund

Shared letters: dnru. Private to "round": o. Private to "rund": -.

"round" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "rund" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • roundorund · ronud · roudn · roundd · rounnd · rround · ruond
  • rundrnud · rrund · rudn · rundd · runnd · urnd

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "round" and "rund" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([raʊnd] versus [ʁʊnt]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "round" or "rund" show up more?
"rund" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #460 in our German list, against #21,751 for "round". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "round" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rund" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,876,945 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "round" and "rund" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Rouen vs round". 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 #1,876,945 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