geselltvsgewilltWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#30,580
“gesellt” frequency rank
#18,270
“gewillt” frequency rank
48850
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gesellt gewillt
Definition 2. Person Plural Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs gesellen den Willen habend/mit dem Willen, etwas zu tun

Where the eye mixes gesellt and gewillt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. gesellt and gewillt follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
gesellt
7 ch
gewillt

Why the eye confuses gesellt with gewillt

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gesellt is [ɡəˈzɛlt] while gewillt is [ɡəˈvɪlt]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48850, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gesellt is recorded at frequency rank #30,580, classified as averb, pronounced [ɡəˈzɛlt]. gewillt is at rank #18,270, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ɡəˈvɪlt].

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 48850, this pair ranks #1,233,269 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of gesellt vs gewillt

Shared letters: eglt. Private to "gesellt": s. Private to "gewillt": iw.

"gesellt" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC  ·  "gewillt" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gesellt ← egsellt · geesllt · geselltt · geselt · geseltl · geslelt · gessellt · ggesellt
  • gewillt ← egwillt · geiwllt · gewilltt · gewilt · gewiltl · gewlilt · gewwillt · ggewillt

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "gesellt" and "gewillt" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gesellt" is a verb and "gewillt" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "gesellt" or "gewillt"?
"gewillt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,270 in our German list, against #30,580 for "gesellt". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "gesellt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gewillt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,233,269 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gesellt" and "gewillt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gesell vs gesellt". 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 #1,233,269 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