längstvslangtWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: längst is a adverb, langt is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“längst” is an adverb and “langt” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,520
“längst” frequency rank
#33,695
“langt” frequency rank
35215
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature längst langt
Definition schon lange, seit langem, seit langer/längerer Zeit 2. Person Plural Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs langen

Where the eye mixes längst and langt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. längst runs 6 letters (CVCCCC) against langt's 5 (CVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
längst
5 ch
langt

Visual trap between längst and langt

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: längst is [lɛŋst] while langt is [laŋt]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35215, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

längst is recorded at frequency rank #1,520, classified as anadv, pronounced [lɛŋst]. langt is at rank #33,695, tagged as averb, pronounced [laŋt].

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 35215, this pair ranks #1,645,248 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of längst vs langt

Shared letters: glnt. Private to "längst": sä. Private to "langt": a.

"längst" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCC  ·  "langt" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • langt ← alngt · lagnt · langgt · langtt · lanngt · lantg · llangt · lnagt

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "längst" for "langt" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "längst" is an adverb and "langt" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "längst" or "langt"?
"längst" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,520 in our German list, against #33,695 for "langt". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "längst" and "langt" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "längst" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "langt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,645,248 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "längst" and "langt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lähmt vs langt". 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 #1,645,248 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