Which to use
“lang” is an adjective and “längst” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #403
- “lang” frequency rank
- #1,520
- “längst” frequency rank
- 1923
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lang | längst |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | große Ausmaße, große räumliche Ausmaße habend; über große Ausmaße, große Ausdehnung verfügend | schon lange, seit langem, seit langer/längerer Zeit |
Where the eye mixes lang and längst
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. lang runs 4 letters (CVCC) against längst's 6 (CVCCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between lang and längst
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lang is [laŋ] while längst is [lɛŋst]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1923, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lang is recorded at frequency rank #403, classified as anadj, pronounced [laŋ]. längst is at rank #1,520, tagged as anadv, pronounced [lɛŋst].
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 1923, this pair ranks #2,003,461 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of lang vs längst
Shared letters: gln. Private to "lang": a. Private to "längst": stä.
"lang" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "längst" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- lang ← alng · lagn · langg · lanng · llang · lnag
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "lang" and "längst" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "lang" or "längst"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "lang" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "längst" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #2,003,461 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lang" and "längst" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lame vs lang". 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 #2,003,461 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.