kahlevsKölleWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#33,138
“kahle” frequency rank
#49,855
“Kölle” frequency rank
82993
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature kahle Kölle
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs kahl deutscher Nachname, Familienname

Letter map: kahle vs Kölle

Shared letters muted; letters that set kahle and Kölle apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. kahle and Kölle 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
Kölle

Grammar separator: kahle vs Kölle

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: kahle is anadjective and Kölleaname. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82993, 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]. Kölle is at rank #49,855, tagged as aname, 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 82993, this pair ranks #147,455 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of kahle vs Kölle

Shared letters: ekl. Private to "kahle": ah. Private to "Kölle": ö.

"kahle" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Kölle" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • kahle ← akhle · kahel · kahhle · kahlle · kalhe · khale · kkahle

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "kahle" and "Kölle" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "kahle" is an adjective and "Kölle" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "kahle" or "Kölle"?
"kahle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,138 in our German list, against #49,855 for "Kölle". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "kahle" vs "Kölle" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "kahle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Kölle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #147,455 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "kahle" and "Kölle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Kölle 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 #147,455 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