gekühltvsgezähltWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#28,676
“gekühlt” frequency rank
#6,194
“gezählt” frequency rank
34870
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gekühlt gezählt
Definition kühl gemacht, mit verminderter Temperatur Partizip Perfekt des Verbs zählen

Where the eye mixes gekühlt and gezählt

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

7 ch
gekühlt
7 ch
gezählt

Why the eye confuses gekühlt with gezählt

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gekühlt is [ɡəˈkyːlt] while gezählt is [ɡəˈt͡sɛːlt]. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34870, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gekühlt is recorded at frequency rank #28,676, classified as anadj, pronounced [ɡəˈkyːlt]. gezählt is at rank #6,194, tagged as averb, pronounced [ɡəˈt͡sɛːlt].

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 34870, this pair ranks #1,653,412 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of gekühlt vs gezählt

Shared letters: eghlt. Private to "gekühlt": kü. Private to "gezählt": zä.

"gekühlt" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC  ·  "gezählt" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "gekühlt" for "gezählt" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gekühlt" is an adjective and "gezählt" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "gekühlt" or "gezählt" show up more?
"gezählt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,194 in our German list, against #28,676 for "gekühlt". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "gekühlt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gezählt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,653,412 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gekühlt" and "gezählt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Gefühls vs gekühlt". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,653,412 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