Which to use
“grau” and “great” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,519
- “grau” frequency rank
- #8,381
- “great” frequency rank
- 12900
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | grau | great |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | in einer Farbe, die eine Mischung aus schwarz und weiß ist, gehalten | sehr groß |
Where the eye mixes grau and great
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses grau with great
A purely visual mix-up. grau ([ɡʁaʊ̯]) and great ([ɡɹeɪt]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12900, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
grau is recorded at frequency rank #4,519, classified as anadj, pronounced [ɡʁaʊ̯]. 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 12900, this pair ranks #1,961,324 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of grau vs great
Shared letters: agr. Private to "grau": u. Private to "great": et.
"grau" · 4 letters · shape CCVV · "great" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "grau" and "great" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "grau" or "great" show up more?
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 "grau" 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 #1,961,324 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "grau" 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 #1,961,324 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.