TomatevstöteteWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#22,174
“Tomate” frequency rank
#16,021
“tötete” frequency rank
38195
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Tomate tötete
Definition eine Pflanzenart (Solanum lycopersicum, Synonym: Lycopersicon esculentum) aus der Familie der Nachtschattengewächse 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs töten

Where the eye mixes Tomate and tötete

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Tomate and tötete follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
Tomate
6 ch
tötete

Visual trap between Tomate and tötete

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Tomate is [toˈmaːtə] while tötete is [ˈtøːtətə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 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 38195, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Tomate is recorded at frequency rank #22,174, classified as anoun, pronounced [toˈmaːtə]. tötete is at rank #16,021, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈtøːtətə].

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 38195, this pair ranks #1,570,368 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Tomate vs tötete

Shared letters: et. Private to "Tomate": amo. Private to "tötete": ö.

"Tomate" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "tötete" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Tomate ← otmate · tmoate · toamte · tomaet · tomatte · tommate · tomtae · ttomate

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Tomate" and "tötete" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Tomate" is a noun and "tötete" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Tomate" vs "tötete" - which ranks higher?
"tötete" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,021 in our German list, against #22,174 for "Tomate". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Tomate" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tötete" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,570,368 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Tomate" and "tötete" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tobte vs Tomate". 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 #1,570,368 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