gelittenvsgewitternWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#10,288
“gelitten” frequency rank
#43,222
“gewittern” frequency rank
53510
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gelitten gewittern
Definition Partizip Perfekt des Verbs leiden blitzen und donnern, als Gewitter niedergehen

Where the eye mixes gelitten and gewittern

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

8 ch
gelitten
9 ch
gewittern

Visual trap between gelitten and gewittern

A purely visual mix-up. gelitten ([ɡəˈlɪtn̩]) and gewittern ([ɡəˈvɪtɐn]) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53510, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gelitten is recorded at frequency rank #10,288, classified as averb, pronounced [ɡəˈlɪtn̩]. gewittern is at rank #43,222, tagged as averb, pronounced [ɡəˈvɪtɐn].

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 53510, this pair ranks #1,055,190 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of gelitten vs gewittern

Shared letters: egint. Private to "gelitten": l. Private to "gewittern": rw.

"gelitten" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC  ·  "gewittern" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gelitteneglitten · geiltten · geliten · gelitetn · gelittenn · gelittne · gellitten · geltiten
  • gewitternegwittern · geiwttern · gewitern · gewitetrn · gewittenr · gewitternn · gewitterrn · gewittren

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "gelitten" for "gewittern" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ɡəˈlɪtn̩] versus [ɡəˈvɪtɐn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "gelitten" or "gewittern"?
"gelitten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,288 in our German list, against #43,222 for "gewittern". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "gelitten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gewittern" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,055,190 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gelitten" and "gewittern" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gewittern vs gezittert". 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 #1,055,190 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