Which to use
“Luft” and “Lüften” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #818
- “Luft” frequency rank
- #17,355
- “Lüften” frequency rank
- 18173
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Luft | Lüften |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | überwiegend aus Stickstoff und Sauerstoff bestehendes Gasgemisch, das Lebewesen zum Atmen benötigen | Aussetzung der frischen Luft |
Where the eye mixes Luft and Lüften
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses Luft with Lüften
A purely visual mix-up. Luft ([lʊft]) and Lüften ([ˈlʏftn̩]) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18173, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Luft is recorded at frequency rank #818, classified as anoun, pronounced [lʊft]. Lüften is at rank #17,355, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈlʏftn̩].
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 18173, this pair ranks #1,920,728 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of Luft vs Lüften
Shared letters: flt. Private to "Luft": u. Private to "Lüften": enü.
"Luft" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "Lüften" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- Luft ← lfut · lluft · lufft · luftt · lutf · ulft
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "Luft" and "Lüften" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "Luft" or "Lüften"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "Luft" and "Lüften" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "Luft" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Lüften" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,920,728 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Luft" and "Lüften" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "letten vs Lüften". 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 #1,920,728 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.