DB

abbrev

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“DB” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #4,335) as an abbreviation. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#4,335
frequency rank, German
2,764
“D” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Deutsche Bundesbahn

Corpus desk

Index DE-db · DB · German

DB · rank #4,335 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #4,335
  • LEN-SHORT 2 letters
  • VOW-0 0 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,764
  • PHOTO-FINISH derselben

Nearest frequency peer: derselben (+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.

Häufigkeitsnachbarn des Verwechslers „DB“

Peers mit ähnlichem Corpus-Gewicht, getrennt von den Verwechslungspaaren unten

corpus weight

What this shows Balken platzieren „DB“ gegen die nächsten gerankten deutschen Lemmata, kein Reprint der Verwechslungsdesk.

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).

DB vs du
0% similar
DB vs de
0% similar
DB vs do
0% similar

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

Key facts for DB
PropertyValue
HeadwordDB
LanguageGerman
Part of speechAbbreviation
Letters2
Frequency rank#4,335
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Corpus-Rang neben Verwechslern von „DB“

Diese Skala geht vom Kern des Alltagdeutschen (links) bis zum seltenen Langschwanz (rechts).DBliegt auf dieser Marke:

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

Die Ticks laufen logarithmisch; jeder ist rund zehnmal seltener. Peers derselben Seltenheitsbandbreite: „derselben“ (#4,336), „bleib“ (#4,333), „Durchmesser“ (#4,337). Unter 2,764 „D“-Lemmata liegt „DB“ bei #4,335. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for DB is neighbouring look-alikes ("du", "de", …), not just typos; it is anabbreviation. Frequency #4,335 among 2,764 “D” headwords. 5 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

No generated misspelling entries exist for DB in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "du", "de", "do", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct German form is DB, spelled D-B.

Definition

  1. 1
    Deutsche Bundesbahn
  2. 2
    Deutsche Bahn
  3. 3
    Deutsche Bücherei
  4. 4
    Deckungsbeitrag
  5. 5
    Datenbank

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Die DB war eine Staatseisenbahn.
  2. „Die DB AG entstand 1994 aus der Fusion der Deutschen Bundesbahn und der Deutschen Reichsbahn.“

This word in other languages

DB(English)

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 "DB"?
"DB" is spelled D-B.
What does "DB" mean?
As an abbreviation, "DB" means: Deutsche Bundesbahn
What words are commonly confused with "DB"?
"DB" is commonly confused with "du", "de", "do". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
What language does "DB" come from?
"DB" 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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list