LuftvsluzWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“Luft” and “luz” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#818
“Luft” frequency rank
#35,899
“luz” frequency rank
36717
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Luft luz
Definition überwiegend aus Stickstoff und Sauerstoff bestehendes Gasgemisch, das Lebewesen zum Atmen benötigen etwas, das Dinge sichtbar macht oder Beleuchtung produziert

Where the eye mixes Luft and luz

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

4 ch
Luft
3 ch
luz

Why the eye confuses Luft with luz

A purely visual mix-up. Luft ([lʊft]) and luz ([luʃ]) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36717, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Luft is recorded at frequency rank #818, classified as anoun, pronounced [lʊft]. 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 36717, this pair ranks #1,608,495 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Luft vs luz

Shared letters: lu. Private to "Luft": ft. Private to "luz": z.

"Luft" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "luz" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Luftlfut · lluft · lufft · luftt · lutf · ulft

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Luft" and "luz" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([lʊft] versus [luʃ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Luft" vs "luz" - which ranks higher?
"Luft" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #818 in our German list, against #35,899 for "luz". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "Luft" and "luz" 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 "luz" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,608,495 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Luft" and "luz" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lai vs luz". 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 #1,608,495 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