kühlvskurzWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#8,096
“kühl” frequency rank
#331
“kurz” frequency rank
8427
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature kühl kurz
Definition von geringer, meist gefühlter Temperatur wenig Länge habend

Where the eye mixes kühl and kurz

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

4 ch
kühl
4 ch
kurz

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. kühl ([kyːl]) and kurz ([kʊʁt͡s]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8427, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

kühl is recorded at frequency rank #8,096, classified as anadj, pronounced [kyːl]. kurz is at rank #331, tagged as anadj, pronounced [kʊʁt͡s].

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 8427, this pair ranks #1,984,333 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of kühl vs kurz

Shared letters: k. Private to "kühl": hlü. Private to "kurz": ruz.

"kühl" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "kurz" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • kurzkkurz · kruz · kurrz · kurzz · kuzr · ukrz

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "kühl" and "kurz" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([kyːl] versus [kʊʁt͡s]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "kühl" or "kurz"?
"kurz" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #331 in our German list, against #8,096 for "kühl". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "kühl" and "kurz". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "kühl" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "kurz" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,984,333 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "kühl" and "kurz" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "kuck vs kühl". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list