AmtsvsartsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“Amts” and “arts” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#15,291
“Amts” frequency rank
#12,659
“arts” frequency rank
27950
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Amts arts
Definition Genitiv Singular des Substantivs Amt Plural des Substantivs art

Where the eye mixes Amts and arts

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Amts
4 ch
arts

Visual trap between Amts and arts

A purely visual mix-up. Amts ([amt͡s]) and arts ([aː(ɹ)ts]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - m in “Amts” becomes r in “arts”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27950, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Amts is recorded at frequency rank #15,291, classified as anoun, pronounced [amt͡s]. arts is at rank #12,659, tagged as anoun, pronounced [aː(ɹ)ts].

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 27950, this pair ranks #1,793,116 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Amts vs arts

Shared letters: ast. Private to "Amts": m. Private to "arts": r.

"Amts" · 4 letters · shape VCCC  ·  "arts" · 4 letters · shape VCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Amtsammts · amst · amtss · amtts · atms · mats
  • artsarrts · artss · artts · atrs

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Amts" for "arts" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([amt͡s] versus [aː(ɹ)ts]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Amts" or "arts"?
"arts" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,659 in our German list, against #15,291 for "Amts". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Amts" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "arts" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,793,116 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Amts" and "arts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Amts vs avis". 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 #1,793,116 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