KürzevsKüsteWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#5,862
“Kürze” frequency rank
#3,978
“Küste” frequency rank
9840
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Kürze Küste
Definition Sparsamkeit mit Worten Grenzsaum zwischen Land und Meer

Where the eye mixes Kürze and Küste

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

5 ch
Kürze
5 ch
Küste

Why the eye confuses Kürze with Küste

A purely visual mix-up. Kürze ([ˈkʏʁt͡sə]) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9840, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Kürze is recorded at frequency rank #5,862, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkʏʁt͡sə]. 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 9840, this pair ranks #1,978,040 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Kürze vs Küste

Shared letters: ekü. Private to "Kürze": rz. Private to "Küste": st.

"Kürze" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Küste" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Kürze" and "Küste" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈkʏʁt͡sə] versus [ˈkʏstə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Kürze" 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 #5,862 for "Kürze". 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 "Kürze" and "Küste" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Kürze" 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 #1,978,040 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Kürze" and "Küste" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "karge vs Kürze". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,978,040 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