KursevsKüsteWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#5,098
“Kurse” frequency rank
#3,978
“Küste” frequency rank
9076
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Kurse Küste
Definition Variante für den Dativ Singular des Substantivs Kurs Grenzsaum zwischen Land und Meer

Where the eye mixes Kurse and Küste

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Kurse
5 ch
Küste

Why the eye confuses Kurse with Küste

A purely visual mix-up. Kurse ([ˈkʊʁzə]) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9076, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Kurse is recorded at frequency rank #5,098, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkʊʁzə]. 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 9076, this pair ranks #1,981,563 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Kurse vs Küste

Shared letters: eks. Private to "Kurse": ru. Private to "Küste": .

"Kurse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Küste" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Kursekkurse · kures · kurrse · kursse · kusre · ukrse

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Kurse" for "Küste" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈkʊʁzə] versus [ˈkʏstə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Kurse" vs "Küste" - which ranks higher?
"Küste" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,978 in our German list, against #5,098 for "Kurse". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Kurse" 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 #1,981,563 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Kurse" and "Küste" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "karge vs Kurse". 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 #1,981,563 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