carvsCargoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#8,996
“car” frequency rank
#24,666
“Cargo” frequency rank
33662
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature car Cargo
Definition Kraftfahrzeug auf vier Rädern zum Transport weniger Personen die Ladung eines Schiffes

Where the eye mixes car and Cargo

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

3 ch
car
5 ch
Cargo

Why the eye confuses car with Cargo

A purely visual mix-up. car ([kɑː]) and Cargo ([ˈkaʁɡo]) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “car” sits inside “Cargo”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33662, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

car is recorded at frequency rank #8,996, classified as anoun, pronounced [kɑː]. Cargo is at rank #24,666, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkaʁɡo].

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 33662, this pair ranks #1,680,832 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of car vs Cargo

Shared letters: acr. Private to "car": -. Private to "Cargo": go.

"car" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "Cargo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Cargoacrgo · cagro · carggo · carog · carrgo · ccargo · crago

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "car" and "Cargo" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([kɑː] versus [ˈkaʁɡo]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "car" vs "Cargo" - which ranks higher?
"car" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,996 in our German list, against #24,666 for "Cargo". 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 "car" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Cargo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,680,832 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "car" and "Cargo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Cargo vs carr". 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 #1,680,832 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