spackenvsspuckenWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#42,829
“spacken” frequency rank
#21,074
“spucken” frequency rank
63903
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature spacken spucken
Definition spachen Speichel heftig aus dem Mund schleudern

Where the eye mixes spacken and spucken

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. spacken and spucken follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
spacken
7 ch
spucken

Visual trap between spacken and spucken

A purely visual mix-up. spacken ([ˈʃpakn̩]) and spucken ([ˈʃpʊkn̩]) 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 - a in “spacken” becomes u in “spucken”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63903, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

spacken is recorded at frequency rank #42,829, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈʃpakn̩]. spucken is at rank #21,074, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈʃpʊkn̩].

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 63903, this pair ranks #660,286 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of spacken vs spucken

Shared letters: ceknps. Private to "spacken": a. Private to "spucken": u.

"spacken" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "spucken" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • spacken ← psacken · sapcken · spaccken · spacekn · spackenn · spackken · spackne · spakcen
  • spucken ← psucken · spcuken · sppucken · spuccken · spucekn · spuckenn · spuckken · spuckne

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "spacken" and "spucken" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈʃpakn̩] versus [ˈʃpʊkn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "spacken" or "spucken" show up more?
"spucken" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,074 in our German list, against #42,829 for "spacken". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "spacken" and "spucken" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "spacken" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "spucken" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #660,286 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "spacken" and "spucken" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Säcken vs spacken". 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 #660,286 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