KühevsKüsteWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#8,584
“Kühe” frequency rank
#3,978
“Küste” frequency rank
12562
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Kühe Küste
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Kuh Grenzsaum zwischen Land und Meer

Where the eye mixes Kühe and Küste

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Kühe runs 4 letters (CVCV) against Küste's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
Kühe
5 ch
Küste

Look-alike desk: Kühe vs Küste

A purely visual mix-up. Kühe ([ˈkyːə]) and Küste ([ˈkʏstə]) 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 12562, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Kühe is recorded at frequency rank #8,584, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkyːə]. Küste is at rank #3,978, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkʏstə].

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 12562, this pair ranks #1,963,420 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Kühe vs Küste

Shared letters: ekü. Private to "Kühe": h. Private to "Küste": st.

"Kühe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Küste" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Kühe" for "Küste" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈkyːə] versus [ˈkʏstə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Kühe" or "Küste"?
"Küste" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,978 in our German list, against #8,584 for "Kühe". 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 "Kühe" and "Küste" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Kühe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Küste" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,963,420 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Kühe" and "Küste" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Küste vs Kutter". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,963,420 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