vonvsVoxWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: von is a preposition, Vox is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“von” is a preposition and “Vox” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#11
“von” frequency rank
#17,772
“Vox” frequency rank
17783
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature von Vox
Definition Ursprung räumlicher oder zeitlicher Veränderung, Herkunft, Gegenstand der Betrachtung, Ursache, sonstige Verhältnisse Stimme, Laut

Where the eye mixes von and Vox

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
von
3 ch
Vox

Why the eye confuses von with Vox

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: von is [fɔn] while Vox is [vɔks]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - n in “von” becomes x in “Vox”, and the parts of speech differ too (preposition vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17783, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

von is recorded at frequency rank #11, classified as aprep, pronounced [fɔn]. Vox is at rank #17,772, tagged as anoun, pronounced [vɔks].

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 17783, this pair ranks #1,924,322 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of von vs Vox

Shared letters: ov. Private to "von": n. Private to "Vox": x.

"von" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "Vox" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "von" for "Vox" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "von" is a preposition and "Vox" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "von" vs "Vox" - which ranks higher?
"von" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11 in our German list, against #17,772 for "Vox". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "von" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Vox" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,924,322 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "von" and "Vox" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "voip vs Vox". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,924,322 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