geführtvsgekühltWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: geführt is a verb, gekühlt is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“geführt” is a verb and “gekühlt” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,197
“geführt” frequency rank
#28,676
“gekühlt” frequency rank
29873
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature geführt gekühlt
Definition Partizip Perfekt des Verbs führen kühl gemacht, mit verminderter Temperatur

Where the eye mixes geführt and gekühlt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. geführt and gekühlt follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
geführt
7 ch
gekühlt

Why the eye confuses geführt with gekühlt

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: geführt is [ɡəˈfyːɐ̯t] while gekühlt is [ɡəˈkyːlt]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29873, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

geführt is recorded at frequency rank #1,197, classified as averb, pronounced [ɡəˈfyːɐ̯t]. gekühlt is at rank #28,676, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ɡəˈkyːlt].

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 29873, this pair ranks #1,758,623 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of geführt vs gekühlt

Shared letters: eghtü. Private to "geführt": fr. Private to "gekühlt": kl.

"geführt" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC  ·  "gekühlt" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "geführt" and "gekühlt" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "geführt" is a verb and "gekühlt" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "geführt" vs "gekühlt" - which ranks higher?
"geführt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,197 in our German list, against #28,676 for "gekühlt". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "geführt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gekühlt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,758,623 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "geführt" and "gekühlt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Gefühls vs gekühlt". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,758,623 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