ghostvsguestConfusable pair

Quick tell: ghost is a verb, guest is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ghost” is a verb and “guest” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#15,376
“ghost” frequency rank
#38,160
“guest” frequency rank
53536
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ghost guest
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs ghosten Gast

Letter map: ghost vs guest

Shared letters muted; letters that set ghost and guest apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
ghost
5 ch
guest

Part-of-speech tell for ghost / guest

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ghost is averb and guestanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53536, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ghost is recorded at frequency rank #15,376, classified as averb, pronounced [ɡɔʊ̯st]. guest is at rank #38,160, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

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 53536, this pair ranks #1,054,109 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ghost vs guest

Shared letters: gst. Private to "ghost": ho. Private to "guest": eu.

"ghost" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "guest" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ghostgghost · ghhost · ghosst · ghostt · ghots · ghsot · gohst · hgost
  • guestgeust · gguest · guesst · guestt · guset · ugest

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ghost" for "guest" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ghost" is a verb and "guest" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "ghost" or "guest" show up more?
"ghost" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,376 in our German list, against #38,160 for "guest". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "ghost" and "guest". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ghost" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "guest" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,054,109 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ghost" and "guest" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "guest vs puzzles". 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 #1,054,109 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