lauevsluzWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: laue is a adjective, luz is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“laue” is an adjective and “luz” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#38,872
“laue” frequency rank
#35,899
“luz” frequency rank
74771
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature laue luz
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs lau etwas, das Dinge sichtbar macht oder Beleuchtung produziert

Where the eye mixes laue and luz

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
laue
3 ch
luz

Look-alike desk: laue vs luz

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: laue is [ˈlaʊ̯ə] while luz is [luʃ]. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74771, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

laue is recorded at frequency rank #38,872, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈlaʊ̯ə]. luz is at rank #35,899, tagged as anoun, pronounced [luʃ].

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 74771, this pair ranks #324,832 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of laue vs luz

Shared letters: lu. Private to "laue": ae. Private to "luz": z.

"laue" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "luz" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lauealue · laeu · llaue · luae

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "laue" and "luz" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "laue" is an adjective and "luz" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "laue" or "luz" show up more?
"luz" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,899 in our German list, against #38,872 for "laue". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "laue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "luz" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #324,832 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "laue" and "luz" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lame vs laue". 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 #324,832 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