titvstutWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#28,882
“tit” frequency rank
#560
“tut” frequency rank
29442
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tit tut
Definition Meise 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs tun

Where the eye mixes tit and tut

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
tit
3 ch
tut

Why the eye confuses tit with tut

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tit is [ˈtɪt] while tut is [tuːt]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - i in “tit” becomes u in “tut”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29442, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tit is recorded at frequency rank #28,882, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈtɪt]. tut is at rank #560, tagged as averb, pronounced [tuːt].

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 29442, this pair ranks #1,766,738 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of tit vs tut

Shared letters: t. Private to "tit": i. Private to "tut": u.

"tit" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "tut" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "tit" and "tut" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tit" is a noun and "tut" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "tit" or "tut" show up more?
"tut" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #560 in our German list, against #28,882 for "tit". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "tit" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tut" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,766,738 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tit" and "tut" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tine vs tit". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,766,738 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