FürstvsFurzWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#5,834
“Fürst” frequency rank
#27,310
“Furz” frequency rank
33144
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Fürst Furz
Definition hoher Adliger im Rang zwischen Graf und Herzog aus dem Anus entwichenes (menschliches oder tierisches) Abgas

Where the eye mixes Fürst and Furz

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. Fürst runs 5 letters (CVCCC) against Furz's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
Fürst
4 ch
Furz

Why the eye confuses Fürst with Furz

A purely visual mix-up. Fürst ([fʏʁst]) and Furz ([fʊʁt͡s]) 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 33144, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Fürst is recorded at frequency rank #5,834, classified as anoun, pronounced [fʏʁst]. Furz is at rank #27,310, tagged as anoun, pronounced [fʊʁt͡s].

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 33144, this pair ranks #1,692,333 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Fürst vs Furz

Shared letters: fr. Private to "Fürst": stü. Private to "Furz": uz.

"Fürst" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "Furz" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Furz ← ffurz · fruz · furrz · furzz · fuzr · ufrz

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Fürst" and "Furz" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([fʏʁst] versus [fʊʁt͡s]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Fürst" vs "Furz" - which ranks higher?
"Fürst" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,834 in our German list, against #27,310 for "Furz". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "Fürst" and "Furz" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Fürst" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Furz" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,692,333 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Fürst" and "Furz" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "firm vs Furz". 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 #1,692,333 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