antikvsantutWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#35,057
“antik” frequency rank
#41,028
“antut” frequency rank
76085
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature antik antut
Definition die Antike betreffend, zu ihr gehörend, aus ihr stammend 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv der Nebensatzkonjugation des Verbs antun

Where the eye mixes antik and antut

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. antik and antut follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
antik
5 ch
antut

Why the eye confuses antik with antut

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: antik is [anˈtiːk] while antut is [ˈanˌtuːt]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76085, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

antik is recorded at frequency rank #35,057, classified as anadj, pronounced [anˈtiːk]. 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 76085, this pair ranks #292,136 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of antik vs antut

Shared letters: ant. Private to "antik": ik. Private to "antut": u.

"antik" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "antut" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • antik ← anitk · anntik · antikk · antki · anttik · atnik · natik
  • antut ← anntut · anttu · anttut · antutt · anutt · atnut · natut

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "antik" for "antut" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "antik" is an adjective and "antut" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "antik" or "antut"?
"antik" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,057 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.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "antik" 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 #292,136 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "antik" 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 #292,136 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