kostetvsKüsterWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: kostet is a verb, Küster is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“kostet” is a verb and “Küster” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,603
“kostet” frequency rank
#32,142
“Küster” frequency rank
33745
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature kostet Küster
Definition 2. Person Plural Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs kosen Kirchenangestellter, dessen Aufgabe in der Vorbereitung von liturgischen Feiern besteht

Where the eye mixes kostet and Küster

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

6 ch
kostet
6 ch
Küster

Visual trap between kostet and Küster

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: kostet is [ˈkoːstət] while Küster is [ˈkʏstɐ]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33745, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

kostet is recorded at frequency rank #1,603, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈkoːstət]. Küster is at rank #32,142, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkʏstɐ].

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 33745, this pair ranks #1,679,003 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of kostet vs Küster

Shared letters: ekst. Private to "kostet": o. Private to "Küster": .

"kostet" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Küster" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • kostetkkostet · kosett · kosstet · kostett · kostte · kosttet · kotset · ksotet

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "kostet" and "Küster" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "kostet" is a verb and "Küster" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "kostet" or "Küster" show up more?
"kostet" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,603 in our German list, against #32,142 for "Küster". 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 "kostet" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Küster" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,679,003 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "kostet" and "Küster" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Küster vs Kutter". 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 #1,679,003 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