ArtvsauaWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Art is a noun, aua is an intj, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Art” is a noun and “aua” is an intj - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#289
“Art” frequency rank
#11,007
“aua” frequency rank
11296
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Art aua
Definition eine Gruppe aus einer Gesamtheit, die sich durch besondere Merkmale auszeichnet Ausruf des Schmerzes

Where the eye mixes Art and aua

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
Art
3 ch
aua

Why the eye confuses Art with aua

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Art is [aːɐ̯t] while aua is [ˈaʊ̯a]. 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 (noun vs intj), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11296, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Art is recorded at frequency rank #289, classified as anoun, pronounced [aːɐ̯t]. aua is at rank #11,007, tagged as anintj, pronounced [ˈaʊ̯a].

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 11296, this pair ranks #1,970,620 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Art vs aua

Shared letters: a. Private to "Art": rt. Private to "aua": u.

"Art" · 3 letters · shape VCC  ·  "aua" · 3 letters · shape VVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Art" for "aua" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Art" is a noun and "aua" an intj, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Art" or "aua" show up more?
"Art" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #289 in our German list, against #11,007 for "aua". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Art" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aua" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,970,620 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Art" and "aua" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aua vs AUD". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,970,620 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