KartevsKaterTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,203
“Karte” frequency rank
#7,347
“Kater” frequency rank
8550
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Karte Kater
Definition ein handlicher, planer, steifer aber nicht starrer, meist rechteckiger Gegenstand aus Karton, Pappe, Papier, Kunststoff, allenfalls Holz oder Metall männliche Katze

Where the eye mixes Karte and Kater

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Karte
5 ch
Kater

Why the eye confuses Karte with Kater

A purely visual mix-up. Karte ([ˈkaʁtə]) and Kater ([ˈkaːtɐ]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they are an anagram pair: the same letters reordered. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8550, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Karte is recorded at frequency rank #1,203, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkaʁtə]. Kater is at rank #7,347, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkaːtɐ].

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 8550, this pair ranks #1,983,842 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Karte vs Kater

Shared letters: aekrt. Private to "Karte": -. Private to "Kater": -.

"Karte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Kater" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Karteakrte · karet · karrte · kartte · katre · kkarte · krate
  • Katerakter · kaetr · katerr · katter · kkater · ktaer

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Karte" and "Kater" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈkaʁtə] versus [ˈkaːtɐ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Karte" or "Kater"?
"Karte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,203 in our German list, against #7,347 for "Kater". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "Karte" and "Kater" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Karte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Kater" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,983,842 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Karte" and "Kater" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Kater vs Kutter". 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 #1,983,842 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