respectvsRespektWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#40,791
“respect” frequency rank
#2,038
“Respekt” frequency rank
42829
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature respect Respekt
Definition Respekt, Achtung, Ehrfurcht Achtung und Wertschätzung gegenüber jemandem/etwas; meist bezogen auf eine andere Person, aber auch Tiere, Gruppen, Institutionen, Länder, Kulturen und Weltanschauungen

Where the eye mixes respect and Respekt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
respect
7 ch
Respekt

Visual trap between respect and Respekt

A purely visual mix-up. respect ([ʁɛs.pɛ]) and Respekt ([ʁeˈspɛkt]) 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 a single letter - c in “respect” becomes k in “Respekt”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42829, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

respect is recorded at frequency rank #40,791, classified as anoun, pronounced [ʁɛs.pɛ]. Respekt is at rank #2,038, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ʁeˈspɛkt].

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 42829, this pair ranks #1,437,174 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of respect vs Respekt

Shared letters: eprst. Private to "respect": c. Private to "Respekt": k.

"respect" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "Respekt" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • respecterspect · repsect · resepct · respcet · respecct · respectt · respetc · resppect
  • Respekterspekt · repsekt · resepkt · respekkt · respektt · respetk · respket · resppekt

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "respect" and "Respekt" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ʁɛs.pɛ] versus [ʁeˈspɛkt]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "respect" or "Respekt"?
"Respekt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,038 in our German list, against #40,791 for "respect". 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 "respect" and "Respekt" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "respect" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Respekt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,437,174 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • 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 #1,437,174 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