Bus

[bʊs]

/[bʊs]/ noun

The verdict

“Bus” is a regularly-used German word, ranked #1,626 in German word frequency and used as a noun.

#1,626
frequency rank, German
3
letters
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - als Verkehrsmittel im öffentlichen Personennahverkehr eingesetztes vielsitziges, großes Kraftfahrzeug zur Beförderung einer größeren Anzahl von Personen

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)

Where “Bus” sits in German frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). Bus lands here:

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

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The German entry for Bus is 3 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [bʊs]. Corpus data places it at rank #1,626 in overall German word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "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

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.

Using “Bus”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct German spelling is B-U-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as [bʊs] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
  • Don't mix it up with “by” - see the side-by-side comparison. Bus vs by
  • Browse more German words and confusable pairs in the same reference. German words
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 FrequencyWords open word-frequency list