klonenvskühnenWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: klonen is a verb, kühnen is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“klonen” is a verb and “kühnen” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,034
“klonen” frequency rank
#38,244
“kühnen” frequency rank
78278
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature klonen kühnen
Definition ungeschlechtlich fortpflanzen, zum Beispiel indem man Stecklinge oder Senker setzt Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs kühn

Where the eye mixes klonen and kühnen

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

6 ch
klonen
6 ch
kühnen

Look-alike desk: klonen vs kühnen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: klonen is [ˈkloːnən] while kühnen is [ˈkyːnən]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78278, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

klonen is recorded at frequency rank #40,034, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈkloːnən]. kühnen is at rank #38,244, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈkyːnən].

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 78278, this pair ranks #241,897 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of klonen vs kühnen

Shared letters: ekn. Private to "klonen": lo. Private to "kühnen": .

"klonen" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "kühnen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • klonenkklonen · kllonen · klnoen · kloenn · klonenn · klonne · klonnen · kolnen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "klonen" and "kühnen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "klonen" is a verb and "kühnen" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "klonen" or "kühnen"?
"kühnen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #38,244 in our German list, against #40,034 for "klonen". 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 "klonen" and "kühnen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "klonen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "kühnen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #241,897 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "klonen" and "kühnen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "kucken vs kühnen". 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 #241,897 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