TöpfevstopsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#22,539
“Töpfe” frequency rank
#31,825
“tops” frequency rank
54364
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Töpfe tops
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Topf Plural des Substantivs top

Letter map: Töpfe vs tops

Shared letters muted; letters that set Töpfe and tops apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. Töpfe runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against tops's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
Töpfe
4 ch
tops

Spelling & dictionary notes on Töpfe vs tops

Töpfe and tops are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54364, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Töpfe is recorded at frequency rank #22,539, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈtœp͡fə]. tops is at rank #31,825, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

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 54364, this pair ranks #1,021,858 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Töpfe vs tops

Shared letters: pt. Private to "Töpfe": efö. Private to "tops": os.

"Töpfe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "tops" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tops ← otps · topps · topss · tosp · tpos · ttops

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Töpfe" and "tops" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "Töpfe" vs "tops" - which ranks higher?
"Töpfe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,539 in our German list, against #31,825 for "tops". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "Töpfe" and "tops".

  • Full dictionary entry for "Töpfe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tops" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,021,858 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Töpfe" and "tops" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs tops". 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 #1,021,858 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