palovsPelzWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#38,939
“palo” frequency rank
#18,354
“Pelz” frequency rank
57293
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature palo Pelz
Definition Pfahl, Pfosten, Mast behaartes Tierfell

Letter map: palo vs Pelz

Shared letters muted; letters that set palo and Pelz apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. palo (CVCV) and Pelz (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
palo
4 ch
Pelz

Pair insight - palo / Pelz

palo and Pelz are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57293, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

palo is recorded at frequency rank #38,939, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. Pelz is at rank #18,354, tagged as anoun, pronounced [pɛlt͡s].

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 57293, this pair ranks #906,912 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of palo vs Pelz

Shared letters: lp. Private to "palo": ao. Private to "Pelz": ez.

"palo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Pelz" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • palo ← aplo · pallo · paol · plao · ppalo
  • Pelz ← eplz · pellz · pelzz · pezl · plez · ppelz

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "palo" for "Pelz" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary German text, does "palo" or "Pelz" show up more?
"Pelz" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,354 in our German list, against #38,939 for "palo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "palo" and "Pelz". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "palo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Pelz" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #906,912 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "palo" and "Pelz" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "palo vs puzzles". 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 #906,912 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