golemvsgolfenTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#32,572
“golem” frequency rank
#47,456
“golfen” frequency rank
80028
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature golem golfen
Definition Golem Golf spielen

Letter map: golem vs golfen

Shared letters muted; letters that set golem and golfen apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. golem runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against golfen's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
golem
6 ch
golfen

Part-of-speech tell for golem / golfen

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: golem is anoun and golfenaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 80028, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

golem is recorded at frequency rank #32,572, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. golfen is at rank #47,456, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈɡɔlfn̩].

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 80028, this pair ranks #204,006 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of golem vs golfen

Shared letters: eglo. Private to "golem": m. Private to "golfen": fn.

"golem" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "golfen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • golemggolem · gloem · goelm · golemm · gollem · golme · oglem
  • golfenggolfen · glofen · goflen · golefn · golfenn · golffen · golfne · gollfen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "golem" and "golfen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "golem" is a noun and "golfen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "golem" or "golfen"?
"golem" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,572 in our German list, against #47,456 for "golfen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "golem" and "golfen". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "golem" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "golfen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #204,006 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "golem" and "golfen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Gilden vs golfen". 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 #204,006 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