LichtvslöschtTell them apart

Quick tell: Licht is a noun, löscht is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Licht” is a noun and “löscht” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#884
“Licht” frequency rank
#15,940
“löscht” frequency rank
16824
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Licht löscht
Definition von einer Quelle ausgehender, gut sichtbarer Anteil des elektromagnetischen Spektrums 2. Person Plural Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs löschen

Where the eye mixes Licht and löscht

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Licht
6 ch
löscht

Why the eye confuses Licht with löscht

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Licht is [lɪçt] while löscht is [lœʃt]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16824, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Licht is recorded at frequency rank #884, classified as anoun, pronounced [lɪçt]. löscht is at rank #15,940, tagged as averb, pronounced [lœʃt].

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 16824, this pair ranks #1,932,724 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Licht vs löscht

Shared letters: chlt. Private to "Licht": i. Private to "löscht": .

"Licht" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "löscht" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Lichtilcht · lciht · liccht · lichht · lichtt · licth · lihct · llicht

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Licht" and "löscht" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Licht" is a noun and "löscht" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Licht" or "löscht" show up more?
"Licht" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #884 in our German list, against #15,940 for "löscht". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Licht" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "löscht" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,932,724 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Licht" and "löscht" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lauscht vs löscht". 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 #1,932,724 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