aufziehenvsausziehenWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#19,495
“aufziehen” frequency rank
#9,328
“ausziehen” frequency rank
28823
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aufziehen ausziehen
Definition durch Ziehen öffnen etwas (für jemanden) durch Ziehen entfernen

Where the eye mixes aufziehen and ausziehen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. aufziehen and ausziehen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VVCCVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

9 ch
aufziehen
9 ch
ausziehen

Visual trap between aufziehen and ausziehen

A purely visual mix-up. aufziehen ([ˈaʊ̯fˌt͡siːən]) and ausziehen ([ˈaʊ̯sˌt͡siːən]) 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 - f in “aufziehen” becomes s in “ausziehen”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28823, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aufziehen is recorded at frequency rank #19,495, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈaʊ̯fˌt͡siːən]. ausziehen is at rank #9,328, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈaʊ̯sˌt͡siːən].

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 28823, this pair ranks #1,777,941 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of aufziehen vs ausziehen

Shared letters: aehinuz. Private to "aufziehen": f. Private to "ausziehen": s.

"aufziehen" · 9 letters · shape VVCCVVCVC  ·  "ausziehen" · 9 letters · shape VVCCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aufziehenafuziehen · auffziehen · aufizehen · aufzeihen · aufzieehn · aufziehenn · aufziehhen · aufziehne
  • ausziehenasuziehen · ausizehen · aussziehen · auszeihen · auszieehn · ausziehenn · ausziehhen · ausziehne

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "aufziehen" for "ausziehen" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈaʊ̯fˌt͡siːən] versus [ˈaʊ̯sˌt͡siːən]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "aufziehen" or "ausziehen" show up more?
"ausziehen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,328 in our German list, against #19,495 for "aufziehen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "aufziehen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ausziehen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,777,941 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aufziehen" and "ausziehen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aufdrehen vs aufziehen". 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 #1,777,941 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