ausweisenvsausweitenWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#16,917
“ausweisen” frequency rank
#24,626
“ausweiten” frequency rank
41543
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ausweisen ausweiten
Definition des Landes verweisen etwas durch Benutzung dehnen und somit dauerhaft weiter machen

Where the eye mixes ausweisen and ausweiten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. ausweisen and ausweiten follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VVCCVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

9 ch
ausweisen
9 ch
ausweiten

Visual trap between ausweisen and ausweiten

A purely visual mix-up. ausweisen ([ˈaʊ̯sˌvaɪ̯zn̩]) and ausweiten ([ˈaʊ̯sˌvaɪ̯tn̩]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - s in “ausweisen” becomes t in “ausweiten”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41543, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ausweisen is recorded at frequency rank #16,917, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈaʊ̯sˌvaɪ̯zn̩]. ausweiten is at rank #24,626, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈaʊ̯sˌvaɪ̯tn̩].

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 41543, this pair ranks #1,476,294 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ausweisen vs ausweiten

Shared letters: aeinsuw. Private to "ausweisen": -. Private to "ausweiten": t.

"ausweisen" · 9 letters · shape VVCCVVCVC  ·  "ausweiten" · 9 letters · shape VVCCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ausweisenasuweisen · ausewisen · aussweisen · ausweiesn · ausweisenn · ausweisne · ausweissen · auswesien
  • ausweitenasuweiten · ausewiten · aussweiten · ausweietn · ausweitenn · ausweitne · ausweitten · auswetien

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ausweisen" and "ausweiten" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈaʊ̯sˌvaɪ̯zn̩] versus [ˈaʊ̯sˌvaɪ̯tn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "ausweisen" or "ausweiten" show up more?
"ausweisen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,917 in our German list, against #24,626 for "ausweiten". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ausweisen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ausweiten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,476,294 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ausweisen" and "ausweiten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aufwerten vs ausweiten". 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 #1,476,294 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