stolzevsStürzeTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#13,033
“stolze” frequency rank
#27,960
“Stürze” frequency rank
40993
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature stolze Stürze
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs stolz Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Sturz

Where the eye mixes stolze and Stürze

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. stolze and Stürze follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
stolze
6 ch
Stürze

Visual trap between stolze and Stürze

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: stolze is [ˈʃtɔlt͡sə] while Stürze is [ˈʃtʏʁt͡sə]. 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 40993, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

stolze is recorded at frequency rank #13,033, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈʃtɔlt͡sə]. Stürze is at rank #27,960, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈʃtʏʁt͡sə].

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 40993, this pair ranks #1,492,360 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of stolze vs Stürze

Shared letters: estz. Private to "stolze": lo. Private to "Stürze": rü.

"stolze" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV  ·  "Stürze" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • stolze ← sotlze · sstolze · stloze · stolez · stollze · stolzze · stozle · sttolze

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "stolze" and "Stürze" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "stolze" is an adjective and "Stürze" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "stolze" or "Stürze" show up more?
"stolze" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,033 in our German list, against #27,960 for "Stürze". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "stolze" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Stürze" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,492,360 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "stolze" and "Stürze" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sturms vs Stürze". 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 #1,492,360 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