CampusvschampsWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Campus is a noun, champs is an unknown, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Campus” is a noun and “champs” is an unknown - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,905
“Campus” frequency rank
#31,982
“champs” frequency rank
38887
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Campus champs
Definition Gelände, auf dem sich Gebäude und weitere Anlagen einer Universität befinden Plural von champ

Where the eye mixes Campus and champs

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
Campus
6 ch
champs

Why the eye confuses Campus with champs

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Campus is [ˈkampʊs] while champs is [t͡ʃæmps]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs unknown), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38887, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Campus is recorded at frequency rank #6,905, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkampʊs]. champs is at rank #31,982, tagged as anunknown, pronounced [t͡ʃæmps].

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 38887, this pair ranks #1,552,008 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Campus vs champs

Shared letters: acmps. Private to "Campus": u. Private to "champs": h.

"Campus" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "champs" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Campusacmpus · cammpus · camppus · campsu · campuss · camups · capmus · ccampus
  • champscahmps · cchamps · chammps · champps · champss · chamsp · chapms · chhamps

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Campus" for "champs" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Campus" is a noun and "champs" an unknown, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Campus" or "champs" show up more?
"Campus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,905 in our German list, against #31,982 for "champs". 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 "Campus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "champs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,552,008 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Campus" and "champs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "campe vs champs". 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 #1,552,008 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