Which to use
“Kohle” is a noun and “kühl” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,464
- “Kohle” frequency rank
- #8,096
- “kühl” frequency rank
- 11560
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Kohle | kühl |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | dunkelbraune oder schwarze, stark kohlenstoffhaltige, brennbare Substanz, meist aus fossilisierten Pflanzen entstanden | von geringer, meist gefühlter Temperatur |
Where the eye mixes Kohle and kühl
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between Kohle and kühl
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Kohle is [ˈkoːlə] while kühl is [kyːl]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11560, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Kohle is recorded at frequency rank #3,464, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkoːlə]. kühl is at rank #8,096, tagged as anadj, pronounced [kyːl].
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 11560, this pair ranks #1,969,217 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of Kohle vs kühl
Shared letters: hkl. Private to "Kohle": eo. Private to "kühl": ü.
"Kohle" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "kühl" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- Kohle ← khole · kkohle · kohel · kohhle · kohlle · kolhe · okhle
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Kohle" for "kühl" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "Kohle" or "kühl" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "Kohle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "kühl" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,969,217 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Kohle" and "kühl" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Kohle 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 #1,969,217 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.