topic vs tops, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#26,648
“topic” frequency rank: #31,825
“tops” frequency rank: 58473
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	topic	tops
Definition	Gegenstand, Thema	Plural des Substantivs top

Letter map: topic vs tops

Shared letters muted; letters that set topic and tops apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch

topic

4 ch

tops

Spelling & dictionary notes on topic vs tops

topic 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 58473, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

topic is recorded at frequency rank #26,648, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈtɒpɪk]. 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 58473, this pair ranks #861,407 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of topic vs tops

Shared letters: opt. Private to "topic": ci. Private to "tops": s.

"topic" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "tops" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

topic ← otpic · toipc · topci · topicc · toppic · tpoic · ttopic
tops ← otps · topps · topss · tosp · tpos · ttops

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "topic" for "tops" ever safe?

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.

In ordinary German text, does "topic" or "tops" show up more?

"topic" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,648 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.

Useful next steps

You've compared "topic" and "tops". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "topic" 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 #861,407 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"topic" 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 #861,407 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.