glassvsGrausWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#16,722
“glass” frequency rank
#43,228
“Graus” frequency rank
59950
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature glass Graus
Definition Glas (das durchsichtige, harte Material) etwas entsetzlich Fürchterliches

Where the eye mixes glass and Graus

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
glass
5 ch
Graus

Visual trap between glass and Graus

A purely visual mix-up. glass ([ɡlɑːs]) and Graus ([ɡʁaʊ̯s]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59950, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

glass is recorded at frequency rank #16,722, classified as anoun, pronounced [ɡlɑːs]. Graus is at rank #43,228, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ɡʁaʊ̯s].

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 59950, this pair ranks #805,275 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of glass vs Graus

Shared letters: ags. Private to "glass": l. Private to "Graus": ru.

"glass" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "Graus" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • glassgalss · gglass · glaß · gllass · glsas · lgass
  • Grausgarus · ggraus · grasu · grauss · grraus · gruas · rgaus

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "glass" for "Graus" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ɡlɑːs] versus [ɡʁaʊ̯s]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "glass" or "Graus" show up more?
"glass" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,722 in our German list, against #43,228 for "Graus". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "glass" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Graus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #805,275 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "glass" and "Graus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Graus vs grave". 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 #805,275 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