stolzvsstoryWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#1,141
“stolz” frequency rank
#2,519
“story” frequency rank
3660
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature stolz story
Definition seiner Fähigkeiten und Leistungen bewusst und erfreut darüber, im Selbstgefühl gestärkt Geschichte, Erzählung, Handlung, Fabel

Where the eye mixes stolz and story

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

5 ch
stolz
5 ch
story

Why the eye confuses stolz with story

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: stolz is [ʃtɔlt͡s] while story is [stɔːri]. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3660, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

stolz is recorded at frequency rank #1,141, classified as anadj, pronounced [ʃtɔlt͡s]. story is at rank #2,519, tagged as anoun, pronounced [stɔːri].

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 3660, this pair ranks #1,999,685 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of stolz vs story

Shared letters: ost. Private to "stolz": lz. Private to "story": ry.

"stolz" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "story" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • stolzsotlz · sstolz · stloz · stollz · stolzz · stozl · sttolz · tsolz
  • storysotry · sstory · storry · storyy · stoyr · stroy · sttory · tsory

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "stolz" and "story" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "stolz" is an adjective and "story" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "stolz" vs "story" - which ranks higher?
"stolz" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,141 in our German list, against #2,519 for "story". 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 "stolz" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "story" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,999,685 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "stolz" and "story" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "storia vs story". 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 #1,999,685 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