sharpvsStartWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#29,787
“sharp” frequency rank
#1,094
“Start” frequency rank
30881
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sharp Start
Definition so, dass es gut schneidet (zum Beispiel ein Messer oder eine Axt) absichtsvoller Beginn einer Tätigkeit/eines Projekts

Letter map: sharp vs Start

Shared letters muted; letters that set sharp and Start apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
sharp
5 ch
Start

Grammar separator: sharp vs Start

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sharp is anadjective and Startanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30881, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sharp is recorded at frequency rank #29,787, classified as anadj, pronounced […]. Start is at rank #1,094, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ʃtaʁt].

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 30881, this pair ranks #1,739,232 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sharp vs Start

Shared letters: ars. Private to "sharp": hp. Private to "Start": t.

"sharp" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "Start" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sharphsarp · sahrp · shapr · sharpp · sharrp · shharp · shrap · ssharp
  • Startsatrt · sstart · startt · statr · strat · sttart · tsart

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sharp" and "Start" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sharp" is an adjective and "Start" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "sharp" or "Start" show up more?
"Start" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,094 in our German list, against #29,787 for "sharp". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pair "sharp" vs "Start" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sharp" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Start" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,739,232 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sharp" and "Start" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs sharp". 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 #1,739,232 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