GewährvsGewaltWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#21,627
“Gewähr” frequency rank
#1,082
“Gewalt” frequency rank
22709
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Gewähr Gewalt
Definition Sicherheit, Bürgschaft, Garantie erhebliche oder übermäßige Kraft, dies bei gezieltem Tun gegen Widerstände, oft ohne Legitimation

Where the eye mixes Gewähr and Gewalt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Gewähr and Gewalt follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
Gewähr
6 ch
Gewalt

Visual trap between Gewähr and Gewalt

A purely visual mix-up. Gewähr ([ɡəˈvɛːɐ̯]) and Gewalt ([ɡəˈvalt]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22709, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Gewähr is recorded at frequency rank #21,627, classified as anoun, pronounced [ɡəˈvɛːɐ̯]. Gewalt is at rank #1,082, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ɡəˈvalt].

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 22709, this pair ranks #1,870,743 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Gewähr vs Gewalt

Shared letters: egw. Private to "Gewähr": hrä. Private to "Gewalt": alt.

"Gewähr" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "Gewalt" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Gewalt ← egwalt · geawlt · gewallt · gewaltt · gewatl · gewlat · gewwalt · ggewalt

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Gewähr" for "Gewalt" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ɡəˈvɛːɐ̯] versus [ɡəˈvalt]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Gewähr" vs "Gewalt" - which ranks higher?
"Gewalt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,082 in our German list, against #21,627 for "Gewähr". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Gewähr" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Gewalt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,870,743 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Gewähr" and "Gewalt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gemäht vs Gewähr". 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 #1,870,743 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