karavsKorkWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#21,657
“kara” frequency rank
#43,297
“Kork” frequency rank
64954
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature kara Kork
Definition lieb, wert, teuer, wertvoll, hold, herzig 2,5 bis 20 cm dicke Rinde der Korkeiche (quercus suber), aus lückenlos aneinander schließenden Zellen, die für Flüssigkeiten und Gase schwer durchlässig sind

Letter map: kara vs Kork

Shared letters muted; letters that set kara and Kork apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. kara (CVCV) and Kork (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
kara
4 ch
Kork

Role in the sentence - kara and Kork

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: kara is anadjective and Korkanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64954, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

kara is recorded at frequency rank #21,657, classified as anadj. Kork is at rank #43,297, tagged as anoun, pronounced [kɔʁk].

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 64954, this pair ranks #623,534 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of kara vs Kork

Shared letters: kr. Private to "kara": a. Private to "Kork": o.

"kara" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Kork" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • kara ← akra · kaar · karra · kkara · kraa
  • Kork ← kkork · kokr · korkk · korrk · krok · okrk

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "kara" for "Kork" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "kara" is an adjective and "Kork" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "kara" or "Kork" show up more?
"kara" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,657 in our German list, against #43,297 for "Kork". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "kara" vs "Kork" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "kara" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Kork" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #623,534 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "kara" and "Kork" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "kola vs Kork". 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 #623,534 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