GrafvsgreatWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Graf is a noun, great is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Graf” is a noun and “great” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,768
“Graf” frequency rank
#8,381
“great” frequency rank
11149
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Graf great
Definition Adelstitel im Rang unter dem Fürsten und über dem Freiherrn sehr groß

Where the eye mixes Graf and great

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

4 ch
Graf
5 ch
great

Visual trap between Graf and great

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Graf is [ɡʁaːf] while great is [ɡɹeɪt]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11149, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Graf is recorded at frequency rank #2,768, classified as anoun, pronounced [ɡʁaːf]. great is at rank #8,381, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ɡɹeɪt].

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 11149, this pair ranks #1,971,433 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Graf vs great

Shared letters: agr. Private to "Graf": f. Private to "great": et.

"Graf" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "great" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Grafgarf · ggraf · graff · grfa · grraf · rgaf
  • greatgerat · ggreat · graet · greatt · greta · grreat · rgeat

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Graf" and "great" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Graf" is a noun and "great" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Graf" or "great" show up more?
"Graf" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,768 in our German list, against #8,381 for "great". 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 "Graf" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "great" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,971,433 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Graf" and "great" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "great vs greco". 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 #1,971,433 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