KohvsKorkWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Koh is a abbrev, Kork is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Koh” is an abbrev and “Kork” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#39,477
“Koh” frequency rank
#43,297
“Kork” frequency rank
82774
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Koh Kork
Definition Buch Kohelet 2,5 bis 20 cm dicke Rinde der Korkeiche (quercus suber), aus lückenlos aneinander schließenden Zellen, die für Flüssigkeiten und Gase schwer durchlässig sind

Letter map: Koh vs Kork

Shared letters muted; letters that set Koh and Kork apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. Koh runs 3 letters (CVC) against Kork's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
Koh
4 ch
Kork

Role in the sentence - Koh and Kork

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Koh is anabbrev and Korkanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82774, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Koh is recorded at frequency rank #39,477, classified as anabbrev, pronounced […]. Kork is at rank #43,297, tagged as anoun, pronounced [kɔʁk].

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 82774, this pair ranks #151,215 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Koh vs Kork

Shared letters: ko. Private to "Koh": h. Private to "Kork": r.

"Koh" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "Kork" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Kork ← kkork · kokr · korkk · korrk · krok · okrk

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Koh" for "Kork" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Koh" is an abbrev and "Kork" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Koh" or "Kork" show up more?
"Koh" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #39,477 in our German list, against #43,297 for "Kork". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "Koh" and "Kork".

  • Full dictionary entry for "Koh" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Kork" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #151,215 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Koh" and "Kork" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "kola vs Kork". 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 #151,215 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