RuinvsruleWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#21,044
“Ruin” frequency rank
#31,762
“rule” frequency rank
52806
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Ruin rule
Definition Zustand des vollständigen finanziellen, gesundheitlichen oder moralischen Zusammenbruchs Regel, Vorschrift

Letter map: Ruin vs rule

Shared letters muted; letters that set Ruin and rule apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
Ruin
4 ch
rule

Spelling & dictionary notes on Ruin vs rule

Ruin and rule are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52806, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Ruin is recorded at frequency rank #21,044, classified as anoun, pronounced [ʁuˈiːn]. rule is at rank #31,762, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

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 52806, this pair ranks #1,082,556 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Ruin vs rule

Shared letters: ru. Private to "Ruin": in. Private to "rule": el.

"Ruin" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "rule" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Ruinriun · rruin · ruinn · runi
  • rulerlue · rrule · ruel · rulle · urle

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Ruin" and "rule" be used interchangeably?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "Ruin" vs "rule" - which ranks higher?
"Ruin" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,044 in our German list, against #31,762 for "rule". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "Ruin" vs "rule" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Ruin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rule" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,082,556 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Ruin" and "rule" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs rule". 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 #1,082,556 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