Which to use
“rue” is a noun and “Ruth” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #16,534
- “rue” frequency rank
- #8,127
- “Ruth” frequency rank
- 24661
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | rue | Ruth |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Reue | weiblicher Vorname |
Where the eye mixes rue and Ruth
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between rue and Ruth
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: rue is [ruː] while Ruth is [ʁuːt]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24661, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
rue is recorded at frequency rank #16,534, classified as anoun, pronounced [ruː]. Ruth is at rank #8,127, tagged as aname, pronounced [ʁuːt].
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 24661, this pair ranks #1,844,496 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of rue vs Ruth
Shared letters: ru. Private to "rue": e. Private to "Ruth": ht.
"rue" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "Ruth" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- Ruth ← rruth · rtuh · ruthh · rutth · urth
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "rue" for "Ruth" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "rue" or "Ruth" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "rue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Ruth" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,844,496 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "rue" and "Ruth" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "RUB vs rue". 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 #1,844,496 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.