Which to use
“card” and “cord” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,840
- “card” frequency rank
- #36,862
- “cord” frequency rank
- 48702
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | card | cord |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Karte, auch Card | längliches aus etwas zusammengedrehtes Ding, das beispielsweise als Gürtel getragen wird |
Where the eye mixes card and cord
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between card and cord
A purely visual mix-up. card ([kɑːd]) and cord ([kɔː(r)d]) 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 - a in “card” becomes o in “cord”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48702, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
card is recorded at frequency rank #11,840, classified as anoun, pronounced [kɑːd]. cord is at rank #36,862, tagged as anoun, pronounced [kɔː(r)d].
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 48702, this pair ranks #1,238,799 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of card vs cord
Shared letters: cdr. Private to "card": a. Private to "cord": o.
"card" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "cord" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "card" and "cord" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "card" vs "cord" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "card" and "cord" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "card" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cord" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,238,799 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "card" and "cord" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "carr vs cord". 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 #1,238,799 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.