nassvsNSAWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#5,515
“nass” frequency rank
#4,454
“NSA” frequency rank
9969
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nass NSA
Definition mit anhaftender Flüssigkeit, mit Flüssigkeit durchsetzt, von Flüssigkeit bedeckt National Security Agency, militärischer Nachrichtendienst der USA

Letter map: nass vs NSA

Shared letters muted; letters that set nass and NSA apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
nass
3 ch
NSA

Part-of-speech tell for nass / NSA

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: nass is anadjective and NSAanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9969, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nass is recorded at frequency rank #5,515, classified as anadj, pronounced [nas]. NSA is at rank #4,454, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

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 9969, this pair ranks #1,977,410 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of nass vs NSA

Shared letters: ans. Private to "nass": -. Private to "NSA": -.

"nass" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "NSA" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nassanss · naß · nnass · nsas

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "nass" for "NSA" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "nass" is an adjective and "NSA" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "nass" or "NSA" show up more?
"NSA" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,454 in our German list, against #5,515 for "nass". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "nass" and "NSA".

  • Full dictionary entry for "nass" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "NSA" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,977,410 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nass" and "NSA" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nass vs nasses". 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 #1,977,410 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