CargovsCarsonWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Cargo is a noun, Carson is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Cargo” is a noun and “Carson” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#24,666
“Cargo” frequency rank
#31,490
“Carson” frequency rank
56156
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Cargo Carson
Definition die Ladung eines Schiffes Stadt im US-Bundesstaat Kalifornien

Letter map: Cargo vs Carson

Shared letters muted; letters that set Cargo and Carson apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

5 ch
Cargo
6 ch
Carson

Grammar separator: Cargo vs Carson

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Cargo is anoun and Carsonaname. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56156, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Cargo is recorded at frequency rank #24,666, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkaʁɡo]. Carson is at rank #31,490, tagged as aname, pronounced […].

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 56156, this pair ranks #951,287 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Cargo vs Carson

Shared letters: acor. Private to "Cargo": g. Private to "Carson": ns.

"Cargo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Carson" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Cargoacrgo · cagro · carggo · carog · carrgo · ccargo · crago
  • Carsonacrson · carosn · carrson · carsno · carsonn · carsson · casron · ccarson

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Cargo" for "Carson" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Cargo" is a noun and "Carson" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Cargo" or "Carson" show up more?
"Cargo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,666 in our German list, against #31,490 for "Carson". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "Cargo" and "Carson". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Cargo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Carson" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #951,287 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Cargo" and "Carson" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Carson vs puzzles". 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 #951,287 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