FuchsvsFurchtWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#4,704
“Fuchs” frequency rank
#8,055
“Furcht” frequency rank
12759
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Fuchs Furcht
Definition Vertreter einer Gruppe von bestimmten kurzbeinigen Arten der Familie der Hunde (Canidae) Emotion angesichts drohender Gefahr

Where the eye mixes Fuchs and Furcht

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Fuchs runs 5 letters (CVCCC) against Furcht's 6 (CVCCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
Fuchs
6 ch
Furcht

Visual trap between Fuchs and Furcht

A purely visual mix-up. Fuchs ([fʊks]) and Furcht ([fʊʁçt]) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12759, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Fuchs is recorded at frequency rank #4,704, classified as anoun, pronounced [fʊks]. Furcht is at rank #8,055, tagged as anoun, pronounced [fʊʁçt].

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 12759, this pair ranks #1,962,214 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Fuchs vs Furcht

Shared letters: cfhu. Private to "Fuchs": s. Private to "Furcht": rt.

"Fuchs" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "Furcht" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Fuchs ← fcuhs · ffuchs · fucchs · fuchhs · fuchss · fucsh · fuhcs · ufchs
  • Furcht ← ffurcht · fucrht · furccht · furchht · furchtt · furcth · furhct · furrcht

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Fuchs" and "Furcht" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([fʊks] versus [fʊʁçt]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Fuchs" or "Furcht"?
"Fuchs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,704 in our German list, against #8,055 for "Furcht". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Fuchs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Furcht" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,962,214 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Fuchs" and "Furcht" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fischt vs Furcht". 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 #1,962,214 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