akutvsantutWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: akut is a adjective, antut is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“akut” is an adjective and “antut” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#15,288
“akut” frequency rank
#41,028
“antut” frequency rank
56316
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature akut antut
Definition in diesem Moment (sehr) wichtig 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv der Nebensatzkonjugation des Verbs antun

Where the eye mixes akut and antut

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. akut runs 4 letters (VCVC) against antut's 5 (VCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
akut
5 ch
antut

Why the eye confuses akut with antut

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: akut is [aˈkuːt] while antut is [ˈanˌtuːt]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56316, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

akut is recorded at frequency rank #15,288, classified as anadj, pronounced [aˈkuːt]. antut is at rank #41,028, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈanˌtuːt].

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 56316, this pair ranks #945,020 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of akut vs antut

Shared letters: atu. Private to "akut": k. Private to "antut": n.

"akut" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "antut" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • akut ← akkut · aktu · akutt · aukt
  • antut ← anntut · anttu · anttut · antutt · anutt · atnut · natut

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "akut" for "antut" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "akut" is an adjective and "antut" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "akut" or "antut"?
"akut" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,288 in our German list, against #41,028 for "antut". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "akut" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "antut" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #945,020 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "akut" and "antut" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "abtun vs antut". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #945,020 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