TäufervsTeufelWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#34,409
“Täufer” frequency rank
#3,341
“Teufel” frequency rank
37750
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Täufer Teufel
Definition jemand, der eine Taufe durchführt böses Geisterwesen

Where the eye mixes Täufer and Teufel

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

6 ch
Täufer
6 ch
Teufel

Look-alike desk: Täufer vs Teufel

A purely visual mix-up. Täufer ([ˈtɔɪ̯fɐ]) and Teufel ([ˈtɔɪ̯fl̩]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37750, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Täufer is recorded at frequency rank #34,409, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈtɔɪ̯fɐ]. Teufel is at rank #3,341, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈtɔɪ̯fl̩].

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 37750, this pair ranks #1,581,991 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Täufer vs Teufel

Shared letters: eftu. Private to "Täufer": rä. Private to "Teufel": l.

"Täufer" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "Teufel" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Teufel ← etufel · tefuel · teuefl · teufell · teuffel · teufle · tteufel · tuefel

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Täufer" for "Teufel" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈtɔɪ̯fɐ] versus [ˈtɔɪ̯fl̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Täufer" or "Teufel"?
"Teufel" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,341 in our German list, against #34,409 for "Täufer". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Täufer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Teufel" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,581,991 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Täufer" and "Teufel" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Täufer vs Tuner". 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 #1,581,991 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