rette

[ˈʁɛtə]

/[ˈʁɛtə]/ verb

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

The verdict

“rette” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #25,285) as a verb. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#25,285
frequency rank, German
2,984
“R” headwords
3
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs retten

Corpus desk

Index DE-rette · rette · German

rette · rank #25,285 · 3 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #25,285
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 3 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,984
  • PHOTO-FINISH Rieger

Nearest frequency peer: Rieger (+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 „rette“

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

corpus weight

What this shows Balken platzieren „rette“ 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).

rette vs rote
60% similar
rette vs Ritt
40% similar
rette vs Reue
40% similar

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

Key facts for rette
PropertyValue
Headwordrette
LanguageGerman
Part of speechVerb
IPA[ˈʁɛtə]
Letters5
Frequency rank#25,285
Misspellings tracked3
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Corpus-Rang neben Verwechslern von „rette“

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

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

Die Ticks laufen logarithmisch; jeder ist rund zehnmal seltener. Peers derselben Seltenheitsbandbreite: „Rieger“ (#25,286), „Rennrad“ (#25,283), „Rome“ (#25,287). Unter 2,984 „R“-Lemmata liegt „rette“ bei #25,285. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for rette is neighbouring look-alikes ("rote", "Ritt", …), not just typos; it is averb pronounced [ˈʁɛtə]. Frequency #25,285 among 2,984 “R” headwords. 4 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our generated misspelling index lists 3 likely wrong-spelling variants for rette, with forms such as "ertte", "rete", and "rrette". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "rote", "Ritt", "Reue", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, 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 rette, spelled R-E-T-T-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs retten
  2. 2
    1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs retten
  3. 3
    1. Person Singular Konjunktiv I Präsens Aktiv des Verbs retten
  4. 4
    3. Person Singular Konjunktiv I Präsens Aktiv des Verbs retten

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • ertte
  • rete
  • rrette

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of rette - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

ertte2rete1rrette1
Edit distance from "rette"

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 "rette"?
"rette" is spelled R-E-T-T-E. The IPA pronunciation is [ˈʁɛtə].
What does "rette" mean?
As a verb, "rette" means: 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs retten
What words are commonly confused with "rette"?
"rette" is commonly confused with "rote", "Ritt", "Reue". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "rette"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "rette" is [ˈʁɛtə]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "rette" come from?
"rette" is a German word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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 "rette", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked German headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Pauls#25,260Orkan#25,257Orion#25,256Nigel#25,249

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list