guard vs guild, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#30,100
“guard” frequency rank: #38,788
“guild” frequency rank: 68888
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	guard	guild
Definition	Wache	eine Gruppe von Personen, die die gleichen Interessen verfolgen; Gilde, Zunft

Letter map: guard vs guild

Shared letters muted; letters that set guard and guild apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch

guard

5 ch

guild

Corpus notes: guard and guild

guard and guild are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68888, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

guard is recorded at frequency rank #30,100, classified as anoun, pronounced [ɡɑ(ɹ)d]. guild is at rank #38,788, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

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 68888, this pair ranks #493,681 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of guard vs guild

Shared letters: dgu. Private to "guard": ar. Private to "guild": il.

"guard" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "guild" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

guard ← gaurd · gguard · guadr · guardd · guarrd · gurad · ugard
guild ← gguild · giuld · guidl · guildd · guilld · gulid · ugild

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "guard" and "guild" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.

In ordinary German text, does "guard" or "guild" show up more?

"guard" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,100 in our German list, against #38,788 for "guild". 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 "guard" and "guild". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "guard" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "guild" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #493,681 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"guard" and "guild" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "guild vs puzzles". 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 #493,681 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.