cest vs cost, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#45,828
“cest” frequency rank: #27,668
“cost” frequency rank: 73496
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	cest	cost
Definition	Genitiv Plural des Substantivs cesta	Kosten

Letter map: cest vs cost

Shared letters muted; letters that set cest and cost apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch

cest

4 ch

cost

Corpus notes: cest and cost

cest and cost are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - e in “cest” becomes o in “cost”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73496, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cest is recorded at frequency rank #45,828, classified as anoun, pronounced [t͡sɛst]. cost is at rank #27,668, 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 73496, this pair ranks #358,819 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cest vs cost

Shared letters: cst. Private to "cest": e. Private to "cost": o.

"cest" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "cost" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

cest ← ccest · cesst · cestt · cets · cset · ecst
cost ← ccost · cosst · costt · cots · csot · ocst

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cest" for "cost" ever safe?

No. They differ by a single letter - e in “cest” becomes o in “cost”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.

In ordinary German text, does "cest" or "cost" show up more?

"cost" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,668 in our German list, against #45,828 for "cest". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "cest" vs "cost" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "cest" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "cost" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #358,819 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"cest" and "cost" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CCS vs cest". 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 #358,819 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.