Which to use
“Kehl” is a name and “kühl” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #23,588
- “Kehl” frequency rank
- #8,096
- “kühl” frequency rank
- 31684
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Kehl | kühl |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | eine Stadt in Baden-Württemberg, Deutschland | von geringer, meist gefühlter Temperatur |
Where the eye mixes Kehl and kühl
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: Kehl vs kühl
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Kehl is [keːl] while kühl is [kyːl]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “Kehl” becomes ü in “kühl”, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31684, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Kehl is recorded at frequency rank #23,588, classified as aname, pronounced [keːl]. kühl is at rank #8,096, tagged as anadj, pronounced [kyːl].
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 31684, this pair ranks #1,723,197 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of Kehl vs kühl
Shared letters: hkl. Private to "Kehl": e. Private to "kühl": ü.
"Kehl" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "kühl" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- Kehl ← ekhl · kehhl · kehll · kelh · khel · kkehl
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Kehl" for "kühl" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "Kehl" or "kühl" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "Kehl" and "kühl" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "Kehl" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "kühl" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,723,197 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Kehl" and "kühl" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Kehl vs Kehlen". 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 #1,723,197 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.