KartevsKüsteTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,203
“Karte” frequency rank
#3,978
“Küste” frequency rank
5181
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Karte Küste
Definition ein handlicher, planer, steifer aber nicht starrer, meist rechteckiger Gegenstand aus Karton, Pappe, Papier, Kunststoff, allenfalls Holz oder Metall Grenzsaum zwischen Land und Meer

Where the eye mixes Karte and Küste

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Karte
5 ch
Küste

Visual trap between Karte and Küste

A purely visual mix-up. Karte ([ˈkaʁtə]) and Küste ([ˈkʏstə]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5181, 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]. Küste is at rank #3,978, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkʏstə].

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 5181, this pair ranks #1,995,564 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Karte vs Küste

Shared letters: ekt. Private to "Karte": ar. Private to "Küste": .

"Karte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Küste" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Karteakrte · karet · karrte · kartte · katre · kkarte · krate

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Karte" and "Küste" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈkaʁtə] versus [ˈkʏstə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Karte" or "Küste"?
"Karte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,203 in our German list, against #3,978 for "Küste". 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 "Karte" and "Küste" 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 "Küste" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,995,564 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Karte" and "Küste" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Küste 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 #1,995,564 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