kahlevsKehleWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: kahle is a adjective, Kehle is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#33,138
“kahle” frequency rank
#11,268
“Kehle” frequency rank
44406
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature kahle Kehle
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs kahl unter dem Kinn gelegener Teil des Halses; Bezeichnung für Luftröhre oder Speiseröhre

Where the eye mixes kahle and Kehle

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. kahle and Kehle follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
kahle
5 ch
Kehle

Visual trap between kahle and Kehle

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: kahle is [ˈkaːlə] while Kehle is [ˈkeːlə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - a in “kahle” becomes e in “Kehle”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44406, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

kahle is recorded at frequency rank #33,138, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈkaːlə]. Kehle is at rank #11,268, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkeːlə].

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 44406, this pair ranks #1,387,207 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of kahle vs Kehle

Shared letters: ehkl. Private to "kahle": a. Private to "Kehle": -.

"kahle" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Kehle" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • kahle ← akhle · kahel · kahhle · kahlle · kalhe · khale · kkahle
  • Kehle ← ekhle · kehel · kehhle · kehlle · kelhe · khele · kkehle

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "kahle" and "Kehle" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "kahle" is an adjective and "Kehle" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "kahle" or "Kehle"?
"Kehle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,268 in our German list, against #33,138 for "kahle". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "kahle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Kehle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,387,207 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "kahle" and "Kehle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "kahle vs Kölle". 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 #1,387,207 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