KopfvskotWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#434
“Kopf” frequency rank
#17,056
“kot” frequency rank
17490
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Kopf kot
Definition oberster beziehungsweise vorderster Körperteil eines Menschen oder Tieres Katze, Kater (Felis silvestris)

Where the eye mixes Kopf and kot

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

4 ch
Kopf
3 ch
kot

Visual trap between Kopf and kot

A purely visual mix-up. Kopf ([kɔp͡f]) and kot ([kɔt]) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17490, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Kopf is recorded at frequency rank #434, classified as anoun, pronounced [kɔp͡f]. kot is at rank #17,056, tagged as anoun, pronounced [kɔt].

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 17490, this pair ranks #1,926,927 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Kopf vs kot

Shared letters: ko. Private to "Kopf": fp. Private to "kot": t.

"Kopf" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "kot" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Kopfkkopf · kofp · kopff · koppf · kpof · okpf

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Kopf" and "kot" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([kɔp͡f] versus [kɔt]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "Kopf" or "kot" show up more?
"Kopf" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #434 in our German list, against #17,056 for "kot". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Kopf" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "kot" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,926,927 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Kopf" and "kot" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "kot vs krönt". 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 #1,926,927 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