Which to use
“king” and “König” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,384
- “king” frequency rank
- #816
- “König” frequency rank
- 4200
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | king | König |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | König | höchster oder historisch hoher (nach dem Kaiser) monarchischer Würdenträger eines Staates, eines Königreiches; Namensbestandteil von Titelbezeichnungen |
Where the eye mixes king and König
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between king and König
A purely visual mix-up. king ([kɪŋ]) and König ([ˈkøːnɪç]) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4200, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
king is recorded at frequency rank #3,384, classified as anoun, pronounced [kɪŋ]. König is at rank #816, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkøːnɪç].
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 4200, this pair ranks #1,998,326 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of king vs König
Shared letters: gikn. Private to "king": -. Private to "König": ö.
"king" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "König" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- king ← ikng · kign · kingg · kinng · kking · knig
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "king" for "König" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "king" or "König" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "king" and "König" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "king" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "König" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,998,326 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "king" and "König" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "kantig vs König". 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 #1,998,326 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.