Bus

[bʊs]

/[bʊs]/ noun

The verdict

“Bus” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #1,626) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#1,626
frequency rank, German
5,818
“B” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - als Verkehrsmittel im öffentlichen Personennahverkehr eingesetztes vielsitziges, großes Kraftfahrzeug zur Beförderung einer größeren Anzahl von Personen

Corpus desk

Index DE-bus · Bus · German

Bus · rank #1,626 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #1,626
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,818
  • PHOTO-FINISH bilden

Nearest frequency peer: bilden (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Frequency neighbourhood for “Bus”

Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)

corpus weight

What this shows Bars show where “Bus” sits against the nearest ranked German headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

Bus vs by
0% similar
Bus vs BVB
33% similar
Bus vs but
33% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for Bus
PropertyValue
HeadwordBus
LanguageGerman
Part of speechNoun
IPA[bʊs]
Letters3
Frequency rank#1,626
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Wo “Bus” in der deutschen Häufigkeit sitzt

Von links nach rechts: die wenigen Träger des Alltags, dann der lange Schwanz kaum gebrauchter Formen.Busliegt hier:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Die Achse ist logarithmisch: jeder Tick markiert etwa zehnfach geringere Häufigkeit. In derselben Seltenheitsbandbreite liegen „bilden“ (#1,625), „by“ (#1,627), „Bezug“ (#1,624). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for Bus is neighbouring look-alikes ("by", "BVB", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced [bʊs]. Frequency #1,626 among 5,818 “B” headwords. Gloss: "als Verkehrsmittel im öffentlichen Personennahverkehr eingesetztes vielsitziges, großes Kraftfahrzeug zur Beförderung einer größeren Anzahl von Personen".

Bus doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "by", "BVB", "but", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct German form is Bus, spelled B-U-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    als Verkehrsmittel im öffentlichen Personennahverkehr eingesetztes vielsitziges, großes Kraftfahrzeug zur Beförderung einer größeren Anzahl von Personen

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how Bus appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Ich habe leider den Bus verpasst.
  2. „Der Bus hielt, der Junge lief hin und tatschte auf die Tür. Plötzlich standen da zwei Busse. Der Busfahrer, der gerade vor dem Bus stand, war ganz verwirrt. Er wusste nicht mehr, in welchen Bus er einsteigen sollte.“

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 German corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "Bus"?
"Bus" is spelled B-U-S. The IPA pronunciation is [bʊs].
What does "Bus" mean?
As a noun, "Bus" means: als Verkehrsmittel im öffentlichen Personennahverkehr eingesetztes vielsitziges, großes Kraftfahrzeug zur Beförderung einer größeren Anzahl von Personen
What words are commonly confused with "Bus"?
"Bus" is commonly confused with "by", "BVB", "but". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "Bus"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "Bus" is [bʊs]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "Bus" come from?
"Bus" is a German word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar German words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "Bus", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked German headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

What to do next

You've looked up "Bus". Here's where to go from here.

  • "Bus" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "by". View pair
  • Usage frequency rank #1,626 among German headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
  • Browse more German words in the "B" letter cohort. B–Z browse

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list