KohlvsKüheWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#7,201
“Kohl” frequency rank
#8,584
“Kühe” frequency rank
15785
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Kohl Kühe
Definition zu den Kreuzblütengewächsen (Brassicaceae) gehörende Gemüsepflanze (Brassica oleracea) Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Kuh

Where the eye mixes Kohl and Kühe

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

4 ch
Kohl
4 ch
Kühe

Look-alike desk: Kohl vs Kühe

A purely visual mix-up. Kohl ([koːl]) and Kühe ([ˈkyːə]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15785, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Kohl is recorded at frequency rank #7,201, classified as anoun, pronounced [koːl]. Kühe is at rank #8,584, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkyːə].

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 15785, this pair ranks #1,941,145 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Kohl vs Kühe

Shared letters: hk. Private to "Kohl": lo. Private to "Kühe": .

"Kohl" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "Kühe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Kohlkhol · kkohl · kohhl · kohll · kolh · okhl

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Kohl" and "Kühe" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([koːl] versus [ˈkyːə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Kohl" vs "Kühe" - which ranks higher?
"Kohl" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,201 in our German list, against #8,584 for "Kühe". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Kohl" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Kühe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,941,145 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Kohl" and "Kühe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Kohl vs Kölle". 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 #1,941,145 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