duftevsDürreConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#42,433
“dufte” frequency rank
#17,858
“Dürre” frequency rank
60291
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dufte Dürre
Definition sehr gut Periode des Wassermangels, die zu Schäden in der Landwirtschaft führt

Where the eye mixes dufte and Dürre

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. dufte and Dürre follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
dufte
5 ch
Dürre

Why the eye confuses dufte with Dürre

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dufte is [ˈdʊftə] while Dürre is [ˈdʏʁə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60291, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dufte is recorded at frequency rank #42,433, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈdʊftə]. Dürre is at rank #17,858, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈdʏʁə].

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 60291, this pair ranks #792,452 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dufte vs Dürre

Shared letters: de. Private to "dufte": ftu. Private to "Dürre": rü.

"dufte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Dürre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dufte ← ddufte · dfute · dufet · duffte · dutfe · udfte

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dufte" for "Dürre" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dufte" is an adjective and "Dürre" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "dufte" vs "Dürre" - which ranks higher?
"Dürre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,858 in our German list, against #42,433 for "dufte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dufte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Dürre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #792,452 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dufte" and "Dürre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dufte vs Düne". 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 #792,452 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