SehnevsSerbeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#22,136
“Sehne” frequency rank
#42,807
“Serbe” frequency rank
64943
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Sehne Serbe
Definition Band aus Bindegewebe zwischen Muskeln und Knochen zur wechselseitigen Übertragung der im Bewegungsablauf auftretenden mechanischen Kräfte Einwohner von Serbien

Where the eye mixes Sehne and Serbe

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Sehne and Serbe follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
Sehne
5 ch
Serbe

Look-alike desk: Sehne vs Serbe

A purely visual mix-up. Sehne ([ˈzeːnə]) and Serbe ([ˈzɛʁbə]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64943, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Sehne is recorded at frequency rank #22,136, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈzeːnə]. Serbe is at rank #42,807, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈzɛʁbə].

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 64943, this pair ranks #623,928 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Sehne vs Serbe

Shared letters: es. Private to "Sehne": hn. Private to "Serbe": br.

"Sehne" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Serbe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Sehne ← eshne · sehhne · senhe · shene · ssehne
  • Serbe ← esrbe · sebre · serbbe · sereb · serrbe · srebe · sserbe

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Sehne" and "Serbe" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈzeːnə] versus [ˈzɛʁbə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "Sehne" or "Serbe" show up more?
"Sehne" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,136 in our German list, against #42,807 for "Serbe". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Sehne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Serbe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #623,928 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Sehne" and "Serbe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Serbe vs serra". 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 #623,928 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