kau

[kaʊ̯]

/[kaʊ̯]/ verb

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“kau” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #41,934) as a verb. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#41,934
frequency rank, German
4,158
“K” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs kauen

Corpus desk

Index DE-kau · kau · German

kau · rank #41,934 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #41,934
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,158
  • PHOTO-FINISH Katalanen

Nearest frequency peer: Katalanen (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Häufigkeitsnachbarn des Verwechslers „kau“

Peers mit ähnlichem Corpus-Gewicht, getrennt von den Verwechslungspaaren unten

corpus weight

What this shows Balken platzieren „kau“ gegen die nächsten gerankten deutschen Lemmata, kein Reprint der Verwechslungsdesk.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

kau vs km
33% similar
kau vs kg
33% similar
kau vs KW
0% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for kau
PropertyValue
Headwordkau
LanguageGerman
Part of speechVerb
IPA[kaʊ̯]
Letters3
Frequency rank#41,934
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Corpus-Rang neben Verwechslern von „kau“

Diese Skala geht vom Kern des Alltagdeutschen (links) bis zum seltenen Langschwanz (rechts).kauliegt auf dieser Marke:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Die Achse ist logarithmisch: jeder Tick markiert etwa zehnfach geringere Häufigkeit. Peers derselben Seltenheitsbandbreite: „Katalanen“ (#41,933), „Keksen“ (#41,935), „Kampfjets“ (#41,932). Unter 4,158 „K“-Lemmata liegt „kau“ bei #41,934. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for kau is neighbouring look-alikes ("km", "kg", …), not just typos; it is averb pronounced [kaʊ̯]. Frequency #41,934 among 4,158 “K” headwords. Gloss: "2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs kauen".

kau doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable German rules. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "km", "kg", "KW", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct German form is kau, spelled K-A-U.

Definition

  1. 1
    2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs kauen

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 German corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "kau"?
"kau" is spelled K-A-U. The IPA pronunciation is [kaʊ̯].
What does "kau" mean?
As a verb, "kau" means: 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs kauen
What words are commonly confused with "kau"?
"kau" is commonly confused with "km", "kg", "KW". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "kau"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "kau" is [kaʊ̯]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "kau" come from?
"kau" is a German word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar German words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "kau", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked German headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

hoi#41,901moe#42,005ftw#41,821Pik#42,047

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list