carovscorWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: caro is a adjective, cor is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“caro” is an adjective and “cor” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#23,462
“caro” frequency rank
#41,731
“cor” frequency rank
65193
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature caro cor
Definition viel Geld kostend; kostspielig das Herz

Letter map: caro vs cor

Shared letters muted; letters that set caro and cor apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
caro
3 ch
cor

Role in the sentence - caro and cor

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: caro is anadjective and coranoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65193, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

caro is recorded at frequency rank #23,462, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈkaːro]. cor is at rank #41,731, tagged as anoun, 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 65193, this pair ranks #615,355 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of caro vs cor

Shared letters: cor. Private to "caro": a. Private to "cor": -.

"caro" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cor" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • caroacro · caor · carro · ccaro · crao

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "caro" and "cor" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "caro" is an adjective and "cor" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "caro" or "cor" show up more?
"caro" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,462 in our German list, against #41,731 for "cor". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "caro" and "cor".

  • Full dictionary entry for "caro" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cor" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #615,355 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "caro" and "cor" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cor 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 #615,355 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