abgewiesenvsangewiesenWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#12,219
“abgewiesen” frequency rank
#3,939
“angewiesen” frequency rank
16158
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature abgewiesen angewiesen
Definition Partizip Perfekt des Verbs abweisen von etwas oder jemandem abhängen, etwas benötigen

Where the eye mixes abgewiesen and angewiesen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. abgewiesen and angewiesen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

10 ch
abgewiesen
10 ch
angewiesen

Visual trap between abgewiesen and angewiesen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: abgewiesen is [ˈapɡəˌviːzn̩] while angewiesen is [ˈanɡəˌviːzn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - b in “abgewiesen” becomes n in “angewiesen”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16158, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

abgewiesen is recorded at frequency rank #12,219, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈapɡəˌviːzn̩]. angewiesen is at rank #3,939, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈanɡəˌviːzn̩].

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 16158, this pair ranks #1,938,100 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of abgewiesen vs angewiesen

Shared letters: aeginsw. Private to "abgewiesen": b. Private to "angewiesen": -.

"abgewiesen" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVVCVC  ·  "angewiesen" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • abgewiesen ← abbgewiesen · abegwiesen · abgeiwesen · abgeweisen · abgewieesn · abgewiesenn · abgewiesne · abgewiessen
  • angewiesen ← agnewiesen · anegwiesen · angeiwesen · angeweisen · angewieesn · angewiesenn · angewiesne · angewiessen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "abgewiesen" for "angewiesen" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "abgewiesen" is a verb and "angewiesen" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "abgewiesen" or "angewiesen"?
"angewiesen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,939 in our German list, against #12,219 for "abgewiesen". 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 "abgewiesen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "angewiesen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,938,100 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "abgewiesen" and "angewiesen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "abgewichen vs abgewiesen". 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 #1,938,100 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