TopvstopicWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,000
“Top” frequency rank
#26,648
“topic” frequency rank
27648
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Top topic
Definition leichtes, meistens ärmelloses, körpernah geschnittenes Oberteil Gegenstand, Thema

Where the eye mixes Top and topic

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

3 ch
Top
5 ch
topic

Look-alike desk: Top vs topic

A purely visual mix-up. Top ([tɔp]) and topic ([ˈtɒpɪk]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “Top” sits inside “topic”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27648, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Top is recorded at frequency rank #1,000, classified as anoun, pronounced [tɔp]. topic is at rank #26,648, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈtɒpɪk].

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 27648, this pair ranks #1,798,313 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Top vs topic

Shared letters: opt. Private to "Top": -. Private to "topic": ci.

"Top" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "topic" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • topicotpic · toipc · topci · topicc · toppic · tpoic · ttopic

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Top" for "topic" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([tɔp] versus [ˈtɒpɪk]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Top" vs "topic" - which ranks higher?
"Top" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,000 in our German list, against #26,648 for "topic". 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 "Top" and "topic" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Top" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "topic" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,798,313 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Top" and "topic" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tipico vs topic". 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 #1,798,313 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