RuhevsRuneWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,120
“Ruhe” frequency rank
#40,805
“Rune” frequency rank
41925
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Ruhe Rune
Definition Abwesenheit von Ablenkung, Störung, Geräusch und Bewegung; (fast völlige) Stille und Bewegungslosigkeit älteste Schriftzeichen der Germanen

Where the eye mixes Ruhe and Rune

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

4 ch
Ruhe
4 ch
Rune

Look-alike desk: Ruhe vs Rune

A purely visual mix-up. Ruhe ([ˈʁuːə]) and Rune ([ˈʁuːnə]) 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 a single letter - h in “Ruhe” becomes n in “Rune”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41925, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Ruhe is recorded at frequency rank #1,120, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈʁuːə]. Rune is at rank #40,805, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈʁuːnə].

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 41925, this pair ranks #1,464,911 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Ruhe vs Rune

Shared letters: eru. Private to "Ruhe": h. Private to "Rune": n.

"Ruhe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Rune" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Ruherhue · rruhe · rueh · ruhhe · urhe
  • Runernue · rrune · ruen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Ruhe" and "Rune" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈʁuːə] versus [ˈʁuːnə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "Ruhe" or "Rune" show up more?
"Ruhe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,120 in our German list, against #40,805 for "Rune". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Ruhe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Rune" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,464,911 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Ruhe" and "Rune" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "RUB vs Rune". 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 #1,464,911 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