verstautvsverstörtWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: verstaut is a verb, verstört is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“verstaut” is a verb and “verstört” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#32,837
“verstaut” frequency rank
#22,198
“verstört” frequency rank
55035
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature verstaut verstört
Definition 2. Person Plural Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs verstauen (nicht krankhaft) seelisch oder geistig verwirrt (meist plötzlich und für kurze Zeit)

Where the eye mixes verstaut and verstört

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. verstaut (CVCCCVVC) and verstört (CVCCCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

8 ch
verstaut
8 ch
verstört

Look-alike desk: verstaut vs verstört

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: verstaut is [fɛɐ̯ˈʃtaʊ̯t] while verstört is [fɛɐ̯ˈʃtøːɐ̯t]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55035, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

verstaut is recorded at frequency rank #32,837, classified as averb, pronounced [fɛɐ̯ˈʃtaʊ̯t]. verstört is at rank #22,198, tagged as anadj, pronounced [fɛɐ̯ˈʃtøːɐ̯t].

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 55035, this pair ranks #995,232 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of verstaut vs verstört

Shared letters: erstv. Private to "verstaut": au. Private to "verstört": ö.

"verstaut" · 8 letters · shape CVCCCVVC  ·  "verstört" · 8 letters · shape CVCCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • verstaut ← evrstaut · verrstaut · versatut · versstaut · verstatu · verstautt · versttaut · verstuat

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "verstaut" and "verstört" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "verstaut" is a verb and "verstört" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "verstaut" or "verstört" show up more?
"verstört" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,198 in our German list, against #32,837 for "verstaut". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "verstaut" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "verstört" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #995,232 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "verstaut" and "verstört" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "verstauen vs verstaut". 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 #995,232 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