StiftvsstörtWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Stift is a noun, stört is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Stift” is a noun and “stört” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,108
“Stift” frequency rank
#3,778
“stört” frequency rank
9886
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Stift stört
Definition künstlich hergestellter länglicher, meist zylindrischer Körper aus Metall oder Holz, oft mit einer Spitze, der vielfachen Verwendungsmöglichkeiten dient 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs stören

Where the eye mixes Stift and stört

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Stift
5 ch
stört

Visual trap between Stift and stört

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Stift is [ʃtɪft] while stört is [ʃtøːɐ̯t]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9886, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Stift is recorded at frequency rank #6,108, classified as anoun, pronounced [ʃtɪft]. stört is at rank #3,778, tagged as averb, pronounced [ʃtøːɐ̯t].

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 9886, this pair ranks #1,977,818 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Stift vs stört

Shared letters: st. Private to "Stift": fi. Private to "stört": .

"Stift" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "stört" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Stiftsitft · sstift · stfit · stifft · stiftt · stitf · sttift · tsift

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Stift" and "stört" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Stift" is a noun and "stört" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Stift" or "stört"?
"stört" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,778 in our German list, against #6,108 for "Stift". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Stift" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "stört" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,977,818 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Stift" and "stört" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Stift vs surft". 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 #1,977,818 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