fussesvswellsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#33,054
“fusses” frequency rank
#17,186
“wells” frequency rank
50240
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fusses wells
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs fuss 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs well

Letter map: fusses vs wells

Shared letters muted; letters that set fusses and wells apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. fusses runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against wells's 5 (CVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
fusses
5 ch
wells

Spelling & dictionary notes on fusses vs wells

fusses and wells are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50240, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fusses is recorded at frequency rank #33,054, classified as averb, pronounced […]. wells is at rank #17,186, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

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 50240, this pair ranks #1,181,234 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fusses vs wells

Shared letters: es. Private to "fusses": fu. Private to "wells": lw.

"fusses" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "wells" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fussesffusses · fsuses · fusess · fussess · fussse · fußes · ufsses
  • wellsewlls · wellss · welsl · wlels · wwells

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fusses" for "wells" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "fusses" vs "wells" - which ranks higher?
"wells" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,186 in our German list, against #33,054 for "fusses". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "fusses" and "wells".

  • Full dictionary entry for "fusses" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wells" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,181,234 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fusses" and "wells" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fusses vs puzzles". 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 #1,181,234 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