GrazvsgreatTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#3,741
“Graz” frequency rank
#8,381
“great” frequency rank
12122
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Graz great
Definition Landeshauptstadt des österreichischen Bundeslandes Steiermark sehr groß

Where the eye mixes Graz and great

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Graz runs 4 letters (CCVC) against great's 5 (CCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
Graz
5 ch
great

Why the eye confuses Graz with great

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Graz is [ɡʁaːt͡s] 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 (name vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12122, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Graz is recorded at frequency rank #3,741, classified as aname, pronounced [ɡʁaːt͡s]. 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 12122, this pair ranks #1,966,058 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Graz vs great

Shared letters: agr. Private to "Graz": z. Private to "great": et.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Graz ← garz · ggraz · grazz · grraz · grza · rgaz
  • great ← gerat · ggreat · graet · greatt · greta · grreat · rgeat

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Graz" for "great" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Graz" is a name and "great" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Graz" or "great"?
"Graz" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,741 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

Eye-level mix-up between "Graz" and "great" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Graz" 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 #1,966,058 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Graz" 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 #1,966,058 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