RuhvsruhigWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#18,679
“Ruh” frequency rank
#1,489
“ruhig” frequency rank
20168
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Ruh ruhig
Definition ein Zustand der Ungestörtheit von der Arbeit rastend und damit frei von jeder Mühe und Beschäftigung

Where the eye mixes Ruh and ruhig

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

3 ch
Ruh
5 ch
ruhig

Look-alike desk: Ruh vs ruhig

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Ruh is [ʁuː] while ruhig is [ˈʁuːɪç]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “Ruh” sits inside “ruhig”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20168, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Ruh is recorded at frequency rank #18,679, classified as anoun, pronounced [ʁuː]. ruhig is at rank #1,489, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈʁuːɪç].

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 20168, this pair ranks #1,900,545 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Ruh vs ruhig

Shared letters: hru. Private to "Ruh": -. Private to "ruhig": gi.

"Ruh" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "ruhig" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ruhigrhuig · rruhig · ruhgi · ruhhig · ruhigg · ruihg · urhig

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Ruh" and "ruhig" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Ruh" is a noun and "ruhig" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Ruh" or "ruhig"?
"ruhig" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,489 in our German list, against #18,679 for "Ruh". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Ruh" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ruhig" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,900,545 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Ruh" and "ruhig" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "RUB vs Ruh". 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 #1,900,545 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