KüssevsKüsteConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#13,420
“Küsse” frequency rank
#3,978
“Küste” frequency rank
17398
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Küsse Küste
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Kuss Grenzsaum zwischen Land und Meer

Where the eye mixes Küsse and Küste

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Küsse and Küste follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
Küsse
5 ch
Küste

Look-alike desk: Küsse vs Küste

A purely visual mix-up. Küsse ([ˈkʏsə]) 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 a single letter - s in “Küsse” becomes t in “Küste”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17398, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Küsse is recorded at frequency rank #13,420, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkʏsə]. 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 17398, this pair ranks #1,927,745 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Küsse vs Küste

Shared letters: eksü. Private to "Küsse": -. Private to "Küste": t.

"Küsse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Küste" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Küsse" and "Küste" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈkʏsə] versus [ˈkʏstə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Küsse" 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 #13,420 for "Küsse". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Küsse" 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 #1,927,745 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Küsse" and "Küste" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Kaste vs Küsse". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,927,745 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