kovsKornWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#8,896
“ko” frequency rank
#9,396
“Korn” frequency rank
18292
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ko Korn
Definition Kuh Getreide

Where the eye mixes ko and Korn

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

2 ch
ko
4 ch
Korn

Look-alike desk: ko vs Korn

A purely visual mix-up. ko ([ˈkoˀ]) and Korn ([kɔʁn]) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “ko” sits inside “Korn”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18292, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ko is recorded at frequency rank #8,896, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkoˀ]. Korn is at rank #9,396, tagged as anoun, pronounced [kɔʁn].

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 18292, this pair ranks #1,919,627 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ko vs Korn

Shared letters: ko. Private to "ko": -. Private to "Korn": nr.

"ko" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "Korn" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Kornkkorn · konr · kornn · korrn · kron · okrn

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ko" for "Korn" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈkoˀ] versus [kɔʁn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "ko" or "Korn"?
"ko" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,896 in our German list, against #9,396 for "Korn". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ko" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Korn" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,919,627 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ko" and "Korn" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "kola vs Korn". 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 #1,919,627 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