Which to use
“Duft” and “dust” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,850
- “Duft” frequency rank
- #45,871
- “dust” frequency rank
- 54721
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Duft | dust |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | ein angenehmer Geruch, der sich verbreitet oder ausgebracht wird; organische oder chemische Verbindung | Staub |
Where the eye mixes Duft and dust
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses Duft with dust
A purely visual mix-up. Duft ([dʊft]) and dust ([dʌst]) 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 - f in “Duft” becomes s in “dust”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54721, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Duft is recorded at frequency rank #8,850, classified as anoun, pronounced [dʊft]. dust is at rank #45,871, tagged as anoun, pronounced [dʌst].
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 54721, this pair ranks #1,007,736 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of Duft vs dust
Shared letters: dtu. Private to "Duft": f. Private to "dust": s.
"Duft" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "dust" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Duft" for "dust" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "Duft" or "dust" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "Duft" and "dust" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "Duft" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dust" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,007,736 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Duft" and "dust" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dusch vs dust". 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 #1,007,736 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.