kungvskurtWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“kung” and “kurt” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#16,325
“kung” frequency rank
#9,516
“kurt” frequency rank
25841
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature kung kurt
Definition rei (monarca) campo de ténis

Where the eye mixes kung and kurt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. kung and kurt follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
kung
4 ch
kurt

Visual trap between kung and kurt

A purely visual mix-up. kung (/kɵŋ/ ouvir^(fonte ?)) and kurt (/ˈkʊrt/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25841, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

kung is recorded at frequency rank #16,325, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɵŋ/ ouvir^(fonte ?). kurt is at rank #9,516, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkʊrt/.

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 25841, this pair ranks #43,404 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of kung vs kurt

Shared letters: ku. Private to "kung": gn. Private to "kurt": rt.

"kung" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "kurt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • kung ← kkung · knug · kugn · kungg · kunng · ukng
  • kurt ← kkurt · krut · kurrt · kurtt · kutr · ukrt

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "kung" for "kurt" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/kɵŋ/ ouvir^(fonte ?) versus /ˈkʊrt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "kung" vs "kurt" - which ranks higher?
"kurt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,516 in our Portuguese list, against #16,325 for "kung". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "kung" and "kurt" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "kung" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "kurt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #43,404 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "kung" and "kurt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "kari vs kurt". 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 #43,404 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list