KöhlervskühlesWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Köhler is a noun, kühles is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Köhler” is a noun and “kühles” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,124
“Köhler” frequency rank
#31,145
“kühles” frequency rank
41269
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Köhler kühles
Definition Handwerker, der durch Verschwelen von Holzbestandteilen im Kohlenmeiler Holzkohle herstellt Nominativ Singular Neutrum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs kühl

Where the eye mixes Köhler and kühles

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

6 ch
Köhler
6 ch
kühles

Look-alike desk: Köhler vs kühles

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Köhler is [ˈkøːlɐ] while kühles is [ˈkyːləs]. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41269, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Köhler is recorded at frequency rank #10,124, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkøːlɐ]. kühles is at rank #31,145, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈkyːləs].

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 41269, this pair ranks #1,484,436 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Köhler vs kühles

Shared letters: ehkl. Private to "Köhler": . Private to "kühles": .

"Köhler" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "kühles" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Köhler" and "kühles" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Köhler" is a noun and "kühles" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Köhler" vs "kühles" - which ranks higher?
"Köhler" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,124 in our German list, against #31,145 for "kühles". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Köhler" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "kühles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,484,436 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Köhler" and "kühles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Kehlen vs kühles". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,484,436 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