kackenvskuckenConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#17,624
“kacken” frequency rank
#49,848
“kucken” frequency rank
67472
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature kacken kucken
Definition seinen Darm entleeren seine Augen auf etwas richten

Where the eye mixes kacken and kucken

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. kacken and kucken follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
kacken
6 ch
kucken

Visual trap between kacken and kucken

A purely visual mix-up. kacken ([ˈkakn̩]) and kucken ([ˈkʊkn̩]) 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 a single letter - a in “kacken” becomes u in “kucken”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67472, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

kacken is recorded at frequency rank #17,624, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈkakn̩]. kucken is at rank #49,848, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈkʊkn̩].

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 67472, this pair ranks #539,063 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of kacken vs kucken

Shared letters: cekn. Private to "kacken": a. Private to "kucken": u.

"kacken" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "kucken" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • kacken ← akcken · kaccken · kacekn · kackenn · kackken · kackne · kakcen · kcaken
  • kucken ← kcuken · kkucken · kuccken · kucekn · kuckenn · kuckken · kuckne · kukcen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "kacken" for "kucken" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈkakn̩] versus [ˈkʊkn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "kacken" vs "kucken" - which ranks higher?
"kacken" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,624 in our German list, against #49,848 for "kucken". 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 "kacken" and "kucken" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "kacken" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "kucken" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #539,063 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "kacken" and "kucken" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Kraken vs kucken". 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 #539,063 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