KarvsKürTell them apart

Which to use

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

#40,626
“Kar” frequency rank
#29,671
“Kür” frequency rank
70297
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Kar Kür
Definition kesselförmige Eintiefung an einem Berghang mit flachem Boden und steilen Rückwänden Wahl

Where the eye mixes Kar and Kür

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. Kar and Kür follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

3 ch
Kar
3 ch
Kür

Visual trap between Kar and Kür

A purely visual mix-up. Kar ([kaːɐ̯]) and Kür ([kyːɐ̯]) 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 “Kar” becomes ü in “Kür”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70297, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Kar is recorded at frequency rank #40,626, classified as anoun, pronounced [kaːɐ̯]. Kür is at rank #29,671, tagged as anoun, pronounced [kyːɐ̯].

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 70297, this pair ranks #450,514 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Kar vs Kür

Shared letters: kr. Private to "Kar": a. Private to "Kür": ü.

"Kar" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "Kür" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Kar" and "Kür" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([kaːɐ̯] versus [kyːɐ̯]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "Kar" or "Kür" show up more?
"Kür" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,671 in our German list, against #40,626 for "Kar". 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 "Kar" and "Kür" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Kar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Kür" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #450,514 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Kar" and "Kür" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Kar vs karge". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #450,514 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