kontorvsKonturTell them apart

Which to use

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

#42,631
“kontor” frequency rank
#44,745
“Kontur” frequency rank
87376
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature kontor Kontur
Definition Dienststelle oder Geschäftsräumlichkeit, in der verschiedene schriftliche oder verwaltungstechnische Arbeiten erledigt werden durch Kontrast oder meist Linien erzielter Umriss eines Körpers

Where the eye mixes kontor and Kontur

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. kontor and Kontur follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
kontor
6 ch
Kontur

Look-alike desk: kontor vs Kontur

A purely visual mix-up. kontor ([kɔnˈtoːr]) and Kontur ([kɔnˈtuːɐ̯]) 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 a single letter - o in “kontor” becomes u in “Kontur”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 87376, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

kontor is recorded at frequency rank #42,631, classified as anoun, pronounced [kɔnˈtoːr]. Kontur is at rank #44,745, tagged as anoun, pronounced [kɔnˈtuːɐ̯].

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 87376, this pair ranks #81,174 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of kontor vs Kontur

Shared letters: knort. Private to "kontor": -. Private to "Kontur": u.

"kontor" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Kontur" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • kontor ← kkontor · knotor · konntor · konotr · kontorr · kontro · konttor · kotnor
  • Kontur ← kkontur · knotur · konntur · kontru · konttur · konturr · konutr · kotnur

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "kontor" and "Kontur" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([kɔnˈtoːr] versus [kɔnˈtuːɐ̯]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "kontor" or "Kontur" show up more?
"kontor" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #42,631 in our German list, against #44,745 for "Kontur". 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 "kontor" and "Kontur" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "kontor" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Kontur" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #81,174 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "kontor" and "Kontur" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "kontert vs Kontur". 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 #81,174 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